Why Are Unauthorized Immigrants Permitted to Reside in Public Housing?

The Trump administration successfully reduced the influx of illegal immigrants by altering Biden-era asylum rules and sending ICE agents to sanctuary cities. However, the White House has not yet addressed a significant Biden regulation that has mostly gone unnoticed: allowing undocumented migrants and other noncitizens to reside indefinitely in public housing.

Throughout the US, there exist lengthy — exceedingly lengthy — waiting lists for public housing units and rental vouchers for privately owned accommodations.

In New York City alone, there are 227,000 individuals on the public housing waitlist, with an additional 200,000 awaiting openings in the city’s 112,000 housing voucher (a.k.a. Section 8) apartments.

This scenario is not unique to New York City: Baltimore has 64,000 on its combined waiting lists, Boston has 42,000, and Milwaukee has 47,000.

This is why many individuals on these lists may be surprised to discover that, under the Biden administration’s regulations, they are vying for housing not only against fellow low-income citizens but also against noncitizens and undocumented migrants.

Currently, the rules stipulate that only one member of a household must possess legal status for the entire family to qualify for low-income housing. This means that a 3-bedroom public housing unit or subsidized apartment shared by three couples could include just one green card holder along with five undocumented migrants — all of whom would be legally entitled to reside there.

Housing authorities, including New York City’s, which is the largest in the nation, are not breaching federal law by allowing illegal immigrants to inhabit its properties, even while thousands of citizens remain on waiting lists.

This situation may seem contradictory to the 1980 legislation that restricts housing assistance to American citizens. However, over the years, exceptions have been introduced, initially for “non-citizens with eligible immigration status.” Under the Biden administration, this exception was expanded to authorize assistance for “mixed families” composed of both legal and illegal immigrants, in the interest of preventing “family separation.”

The assistance level for mixed families is technically meant to be a reduced, “pro-rated” share of a unit’s total rent. Nevertheless, this simply results in paying a larger proportion of rents that are already quite low: The average gross rent in New York City public housing is just $542 — inclusive of utilities, while the citywide average, according to the Census Bureau, is $1,779.

Moreover, “All household members are required to report all income to ensure accurate rent calculation.” This means housing authorities must depend on illegal immigrants to declare their legal earnings, even if doing so might raise their rent. Such a process is neither rational nor likely.

“Everyone deserves a place to live,” says NYCHA tenant leader Daniel Barber, “but with the waitlist being so extensive, it is unjust for migrants to be prioritized just because they have a family member who is legally here.”

This was the situation that the Trump administration aimed to rectify in 2019 by revising HUD regulations to mandate that all public housing residents confirm their citizenship.

An executive order titled Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility from HUD aimed to “adopt policies ensuring that only eligible persons receive benefits and enforce laws stipulating that aliens who are not qualified and eligible may not receive benefits.”

If undocumented individuals moved in, they could only stay “for the time necessary to verify eligible status.” Moreover, the Trump regulation mandated that the head of a household possess legal status — not just one member.

This rule was not finalized before Trump exited office and was subsequently rescinded by the Biden administration in 2021. As a result, undocumented migrants can remain indefinitely.

Housing authorities are not mandated to disclose the number of non-citizens among the 9 million residents in public and subsidized housing. Moreover, the practicality of simply evicting those who are non-citizens — who have legally signed leases with public agencies — is complex. ICE agents are already occupied with numerous responsibilities and would not be raiding housing complexes.

Given the current scarcity of affordable housing for low-income individuals, it would be prudent to revise the policy for prospective new tenants — both to ensure fairness for those on waiting lists and to remove a financial incentive for illegal immigration.

The economist Milton Friedman, an advocate for immigration, noted the difficulty of reconciling a welfare state’s safety net with open borders. This perspective is especially relevant in the context of public housing today.

Howard Husock is a senior fellow in domestic policy at the American Enterprise Institute.