HUD Imposes Redundant 30-Day Directive on PHAs, Owners to Review Immigration Data

By NLIHC Policy Team 

On January 23, HUD announced that it is requiring public housing agencies (PHAs) and owners of HUD-assisted housing to review potential inconsistencies in tenant immigration records. According to the press release, the review must occur within 30 days. However, timing regarding the implementation of this directive appears to differ between PHAs and HUD-assisted owners.

Importantly, PHAs and owners already ascertain tenant program eligibility, which includes checking for eligible immigration status. The recently announced records review is new and would be in addition to the prior tenant eligibility determination. 

This directive comes after HUD and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to data-sharing, resulting in HUD providing tenant files to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system “for immigration status verification.” Notably, the SAVE system’s reliability has been questioned. 

NLIHC affirms the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition (PIF) statement that the new HUD announcement is a paperwork requirement that will impose costs at the state and local levels while blaming immigrants. Additionally, “HUD has adopted a rhetorical strategy of conflating federal data quality issues with evidence of fraud, waste, and abuse in local communities,” adding that it is “unfair to keep piling red tape on resource-strained housing providers only to make up for data lag and inconsistency in the government’s own systems,” said NLIHC President and CEO Renee M. Willis in a separate comment.

Letter to PHAs 

According to the letter to PHA directors, HUD has created a new report, an “EIV-SAVE Tenant Matching Report” in the Enterprise Income Verification system (EIV). This new report cross-references HUD data with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ SAVE data. This report “includes a list of individuals whose citizenship or eligible immigration status needs to be confirmed by the PHA, due to possible discrepancies between what appears in SAVE and what has been provided for the individual.” The EIV-SAVE Report does not include tenants that the PHA has already determined are ineligible noncitizens. 

The letter indicates that PHAs are required to verify the EIV-SAVE Tenant Matching Report, retain documentation verifying eligible immigration status, and correctly code appropriate HUD documents, all within 30 days. Additionally, the letter states that “PHAs that fail to use EIV reports in accordance with established requirements may be subject to sanctions,” and that compliance with the new report “will be monitored.”  

The letter emphasizes that an individual’s inclusion in the EIV-SAVE Report “does not automatically mean that an individual is ineligible for HUD assistance.” However, the letter states that if someone is determined to be ineligible for assistance, a PHA “may be required to initiate termination of assistance” depending on household make-up. Section 214 of the “Housing and Community Development Act of 1980” permits families with mixed-immigration statuses to live together with prorated assistance in Section 214-covered housing. HUD has indicated its intent to propose changes to its regulations regarding mixed-status families. 

The directive itself and the limited amount of time provided for PHA compliance raise questions and potential implementation concerns. For example, it is unclear whether HUD can impose a new records review requirement on PHAs in this manner. The letter also announces no new resources to undertake this review in a brief timeframe. Finally, as noted above, this process is in addition to the fact that PHAs already determine program eligibility, including whether each household member is contending eligible immigration status. 

Owners of HUD-Assisted Housing 

Though HUD mentioned both PHAs and owners in its press release, HUD only linked to the PHA letter in its release. LeadingAge has written a blog post specifically regarding HUD-assisted owners, indicating that additional instruction from HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs is forthcoming. This means that the timing for PHAs and owners will likely differ in carrying out HUD’s directive.  

Read HUD’s press release here. 

Read HUD’s letter to PHAs here.