New York lawmakers are pushing back at what they see as the Trump administration’s new family separation policy for public housing.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson announced last month that he was ratcheting up paperwork requirements to prove legal residence in the country, and ending a policy that allows legal residents to let close, undocumented relatives live with them.
Under the old rules, a family just had to tell the government if one of its members was not eligible for assistance, and benefits for that person would be cut.
Under the proposed rule, all members would have to prove legal residence. Having an undocumented parent or spouse would mean not just losing some benefits, but losing a home or forcing people who can’t prove residency to leave their families.
“The Trump Administration’s policy of separating families at the border has been soundly rejected by the American people as heartless, cruel and inhumane,” said Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), who drafted a letter to Carson Friday signed by most of the city’s representatives.
“Now, it appears Trump’s HUD would separate immigrant families who use affordable housing benefits or even cause thousands of them to become homeless,” Velazquez said.
When HUD announced the policy proposal, it estimated that some 32,000 families would be pushed out of public housing, which Carson cheered on Twitter as a step to help other Americans.
“Thanks to [President Trump’s] leadership, we are putting America’s most vulnerable first,” Carson tweeted. “Our nation faces affordable housing challenges and hundreds of thousands of citizens are waiting for many years on waitlists to get housing assistance.”
Immigration advocates saw the move as one more racist attack by the administration.
“Trump is building yet another invisible wall to keep everyone but the white and the wealthy out, and he is separating families in the process,” said National Immigration Law Center Economic Justice Policy analyst Jackie Vimo, who supports Velazquez’s letter. “This rule is designed to send immigrant families one message: you have no home here.”
Velazquez also deemed Carson’s claim to be “sickeningly cruel” and “strikingly hypocritical” since the administration’s budget request for 2020 cuts housing programs by 18%, or $9.6 billion, from this year’s levels.
“Rather than trying to hurt our immigrant neighbors, HUD should work with Congress to strengthen these programs,” she said.
Housing advocates estimated that Carson’s evictions would affect fewer people than Carson said he hoped for, and noted that there are millions of people waiting for affordable housing nationwide, including more than 200,000 in New York.
The new rule also wouldn’t be cracking down on undocumented immigrants so much as it would be punishing their legal resident families, they said.
“HUD’s proposed rule on mixed-status families pretends to target undocumented people, but it’s mechanism is actually to punish citizens and eligible noncitizens for having an immigrant family member,” said National Housing Law Project Executive Director Shamus Roller. “This rule would increase homelessness, increase costs for HUD, and undermines the decency of our nation.”
The letter to Carson asks him to withdraw the proposed rule, arguing it “would fail to advance any meaningful public policy benefit, but it would needlessly inflict hardship on thousands of working families.”
HUD is currently soliciting input from the public on its proposal before making a final decision.
