One evening last week, tenant association president Aixa Torres stood before 50 residents and held up a notice that had been circulating among public housing leaders in New York City.
The notice informed residents that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is directing public housing agencies nationwide to confirm the citizenship or eligible immigration status of residents receiving housing assistance. The move is part of tightened Trump administration regulations designed to eject or penalize households if any members don’t have legal status, a departure from existing rules.
For many residents inside the Alfred E. Smith Houses on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which houses over 1,900 families, the notice raised immediate concerns—not only for immigrant families but for the broader public housing community.
“All this documentation is already in the system,” Torres told Documented, explaining that tenants had submitted immigration documentation when they first applied for public housing. “And people now open up your files. It feels like harassment.”
The notice asks each public housing resident to submit proof of citizenship or residency documents or face a change in rent or loss of eligibility. Though the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) says it already turns over information to HUD that it compiled when tenants first applied annually, this renewed request for immigration status has left many residents uneasy.
“What we don’t want is residents living in fear,” said Torres, who is Puerto Rican and has lived in public housing for more than 50 years. Torres added that she worries immigration status checks could be triggered by something as simple as a person’s last name, including names like hers. “It’s been rampant, it feels like a real attack on Latinos in this country,” she said. “When you look at the news and the things that have been happening, for me, that’s a problem.”
The notice shared with residents comes amid a broader federal policy shift. On Feb. 20, HUD released a proposed rule that would tighten restrictions on so-called mixed-status families, where some members are U.S. citizens or have eligible immigration status while others do not.
Under current rules, mixed-status households can still live in public housing or receive housing assistance, though their subsidy is reduced, or “prorated,” based only on eligible household members.
The new proposal would end indefinite prorated assistance and instead allow it only temporarily while the government verifies the citizenship status of all members of a household.
“Many households won’t even have the option to separate to save their housing because the only eligible family members are minor children,” said Alex MacDougall, an attorney in the public housing unit of the Legal Aid Society.
She stressed that the average household in New York public housing makes $26,000 a year, increasing the likelihood that families will be forced from their homes and into the city’s overburdened shelter system.
Earlier this year, in late January, HUD also warned that public housing authorities could face penalties if they fail to adequately verify tenants’ immigration status within 30 days.
The measures are the latest attempt by federal officials to tighten eligibility requirements in federally funded housing programs. Scott Turner, chosen by Donald Trump to lead HUD, said the agency is “rooting out abuse of taxpayer-funded resources.” HUD said an audit found nearly 200,000 tenants whose eligibility had not been explicitly verified, including about 6,000 ineligible non-U.S. tenants.
Federal housing assistance is already limited to U.S. citizens and certain non-citizens with qualifying immigration status, such as lawful permanent residents, refugees, or asylum seekers. According to NYCHA, HUD has long required public housing authorities to submit Form 50058 each year for households participating in public housing and Section 8 programs. The form records the citizenship status of each household member when they enroll in public housing, along with their alien registration number or other federally assigned identification number when applicable.
“They’re going after everybody and the whole thing feels totally out of control.”
—Terry Campuzano, president of the Meltzer Tower Tenant Association
Advocates say the proposed rule could affect thousands of families in New York City who rely on public housing or Section 8 vouchers administered by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the largest public housing authority in North America.
For residents and tenant leaders, the proposal is not only about immigration policy but also about the stability of entire communities.
“It’s just that today nobody feels okay,” said Terry Campuzano, president of the Meltzer Tower Tenant Association, which represents about 200 families in his building. “They’re going after everybody, and the whole thing feels totally out of control.”
Campuzano said residents worry that increased scrutiny of immigration status could create fear across public housing developments and attract more immigration enforcement activity. That fear extends even to tenants who are U.S. citizens, he said, noting that recent incidents of two U.S. citizens being fatally shot by federal immigration agents during enforcement operations in Minneapolis have shaken residents’ sense of safety. “That’s why we have to care about everybody,” he said. “If we don’t, it could be us next.”
Jacky Wong, a Democratic district leader in Lower Manhattan who has organized immigration legal workshops for NYCHA residents, said many longtime residents are now worried about the potential consequences if HUD’s proposal is passed.
“When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact,” Wong said in Mandarin. “Under the current policies, no one is safe [regardless of your immigration status],” he said, “At first, they said they were only targeting immigrants with criminal records. But now they’re going after our neighbors and friends who have lived here for many years. It’s sad to see.”
Also Read: Government Proposes Rule to Strip Housing Aid From Mixed-Status Households
The proposed rule is not the first time federal officials have attempted to tighten immigration restrictions in public housing. A very similar proposal was introduced during Trump’s first term in 2019 but was never finalized and was formally withdrawn in 2021.
MacDougall believes that the withdrawal was due, in part, to an overwhelmingly negative public response.
“The last Trump administration’s proposed mixed status rule generated over 30,000 comments, and more than 95% of the comments received during the public comment period were in opposition to the rule,” she told Documented.
At the time, New York City officials warned that the policy could have significant consequences. According to the city’s response to the 2019 proposal, approximately 2,800 mixed-immigration-status households in the city’s public housing and Section 8 programs could face eviction or potential homelessness if such a rule were implemented.
Those households include roughly 11,400 people, including nearly 5,000 children, as well as elderly and disabled family members. Many of those individuals are U.S. citizens or have legal immigration status and are entitled to housing assistance. MacDougall said that Legal Aid doesn’t have any reason to think the number has changed significantly in the last seven years.
Advocates say the rule could force families to choose between staying together or maintaining their housing benefits.
In response to the renewed federal guidance, the Citywide Council of Presidents (CCOP), the elected body representing tenant associations across NYCHA, issued a statement objecting to the policy.
The council said the directive raises serious concerns about due process and privacy protections for residents.
A new tool called the EIV-SAVE Tenant Matching Report was introduced by HUD in late January. This report identifies tenants whose citizenship or immigration status requires additional confirmation by the housing authority, using data systems of HUD and DHS.
“The residents of NYCHA are not statistics,” said CCOP in a statement. “They are New Yorkers. They are our families, our neighbors, and our community. We will not be silent, and we will not be dismissed.”
“Every resident of public housing is entitled to due process protections under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments,” CCOP said, adding that any adverse housing action based upon Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) discrepancies must include written notice, a meaningful opportunity to respond, and access to a fair hearing.
Tenant leaders are also concerned about how personal information collected through HUD’s EIV system could be used. CCOP said residents deserve clarity about what data is being collected, how long it is retained, and whether it could be shared with immigration enforcement agencies, including DHS and ICE.
Federal lawmakers representing districts with large public housing populations have also spoken out, such as Dan Goldman, who told Documented in a statement he is ‘strongly opposed’ to the rule. Goldman added that he is working on legislation to prevent data sharing between HUD and immigration enforcement agencies for immigration enforcement purposes.
Legal experts note that the proposal has not yet been finalized. Anna Luft, associate director for housing policy and advocacy at the New York Legal Assistance Group, said existing rules remain unchanged for now, meaning mixed-status households can still receive prorated assistance. While many immigrant tenants feel uneasy, she said the proposal should not be a cause for immediate panic.
Luft said there is also no evidence yet that immigration enforcement agencies are currently targeting public housing developments. “We have not seen housing developments raided by immigration enforcement,” she said.
Even if federal policy changes in the future, tenants would still have legal protections under local housing laws. She pointed out that if a household were determined to be ineligible under a new rule, NYCHA would still need to follow a formal termination and eviction process through housing court.
NYCHA said it is reviewing the proposed rule from HUD. In a statement, a NYCHA spokesperson said the agency, like all public housing agencies, is “bound by current requirements set by HUD,” which remain in place unless changes are made in a final rule. The spokesperson added that reporting residents’ citizenship status to HUD annually is a “long-standing federal requirement” tied to federal funding.
Advocates say residents with concerns about their immigration status or housing rights should consult legal experts before making decisions.
At the Smith Houses meeting, Torres encouraged residents to seek legal advice before responding to any requests for documentation. “Before you submit anything, if you have questions, consult a lawyer,” she said.
你知道吗？非公民办理驾照时的这个错误可能会导致选民欺诈
For Torres and other tenant leaders, the policy debate has become a call for solidarity across public housing communities. Torres urged residents and the public to submit comments on the proposal and to use their votes to hold elected officials accountable.
“It is our problem,” she said. “I will do anything I can do to help. It’s everybody’s fight.”
HUD’s proposed rule is currently open for public comment until April 21, and NYCHA officials say they are reviewing the proposal.
