by Jason Hopkins
The Department of Housing and Urban Development concluded a new proposal to evict illegal aliens from government-subsidized homes would send over 55,000 children out into the streets.
The proposal, which was first reported by The Daily Caller in April, is meant to tighten regulations surrounding federal subsidies for low-income housing.
Under current law, illegal immigrants are barred from receiving federal housing subsidies, but families of mixed-immigration status can score these benefits if at least one of the members was born in the U.S. or is the spouse of a citizen. The new White House proposal, pushed by senior adviser Stephen Miller, would require that all family members be of “eligible immigration status.”
“We’ve got our own people to house and we need to take care of our citizens,” an administration official told The Caller in April. “Because of past loopholes in HUD guidance, illegal aliens were able to live in free public housing desperately needed by so many of our own citizens. As illegal aliens attempt to swarm our borders, we’re sending the message that you can’t live off of American welfare on the taxpayers’ dime.”
An analysis by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), however, determined that half of the residents potentially facing eviction are legal and U.S. children who are eligible for aid, many of them living with their undocumented parents.
Under the new proposal, illegal aliens would no longer be able to sign the lease of subsidized homes, even if they have a legal child who is eligible for prorated benefits.
“Tens of thousands of deeply poor kids, mostly U.S. citizens, could be evicted and made homeless because of this rule, and — by HUD’s own admission — there would be no benefit to families on the waiting list,” said the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Diane Yentel, according to The Washington Post.
Around 25,000 mixed-status households, totaling around 108,000 people, have at least one illegal resident or ineligible member enjoying federally subsidized rates. Among these homes, 70 percent of the members are eligible for the benefits, 55,000 of which are children. Most of the potentially affected homes are in California, New York and Texas, according to HUD.
“The cruelty of it is really breathtaking and it would do real harm to kids and to families and for what?” Yentel continued in her criticism.
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Jason Hopkins is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Jason on Twitter.
