According to an audit, nearly 200,000 tenants require eligibility verification, and nearly 25,000 deceased tenants were reported.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has ordered immediate citizenship verification for all beneficiaries of HUD-funded housing across the United States to ensure these benefits are not going to ineligible individuals such as illegal immigrants, the department said in a Jan. 23 statement.
HUD found nearly 200,000 tenants who require eligibility verification. Nearly 25,000 deceased tenants were reported, and nearly 6,000 ineligible non-American tenants were identified, following an audit conducted by HUD and Homeland Security.
“HUD announced that all Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) and owners participating in HUD-funded housing have 30 days to take corrective action to address these findings,” the statement said.
Within the next 30 days, all PHAs and owners must review their EIV-SAVE Tenant Match Report. EIV refers to the Enterprise Income Verification system, which seeks to ensure that limited federal sources are made available to as many eligible families as possible by reducing program errors.
SAVE, the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, is an online inter-governmental service aimed at helping federal, state, and local governments, as well as other parties, to determine the immigration status of individuals for purposes such as granting benefits and licenses.
In addition to reviewing the EIV-SAVE Tenant Match Report, PHAs and owners are required to verify they have accurately reported a person’s immigration or citizenship status to determine eligibility and take corrective actions to rectify errors.
Those who fail to comply will be subject to sanctions, the department warned. “HUD will recapture funding for payments made on behalf of ineligible and deceased tenants,” it said.
HUD Assistant Secretary of Public and Indian Housing Ben Hobbs said the decision to verify immigration eligibility of all HUD-assisted households is a major step toward ensuring that American families are prioritized, while also eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Hobbs said there were hundreds of thousands of American families currently on housing waitlists across the United States, which makes it essential to ensure that limited resources go to only eligible families.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner said, “We are proud to collaborate with DHS to execute on the President’s agenda of rooting out abuse of taxpayer funded resources.”
According to HUD, the directive is a follow-up to President Donald Trump’s Feb. 19 presidential action aimed at “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders.”
The declaration ordered heads of executive departments and agencies to identify all federally funded programs enabling illegal immigrants to gain public benefits, and take necessary actions to end such activities.
“My Administration will uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources, and protect benefits for American citizens in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,” it said.
