Immediate Citizenship Verification Ordered for All Tenants in HUD-Funded Housing Nationwide

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 in Washington on July 13, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

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 that 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 the Department of 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 reads.

Within 30 days of the announcement, all Public Housing Authorities and owners must review their Enterprise Income Verification-Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (EIV-SAVE) Tenant Match Report. The EIV system seeks to ensure that limited federal sources are made available to as many eligible families as possible by reducing program errors.

The SAVE program is an online intergovernmental 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, Public Housing Authorities and owners are required to verify that 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 are 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 in the statement, “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, as well as take necessary actions to end such activities.

“[The Trump] 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,” the declaration reads.

US Housing Affordability

Earlier this month, Senate Democrats alleged that the Trump administration has failed to lower housing costs as Americans struggle to afford homes, according to a Jan. 7 statement from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

In a report, Democrats claimed that foreclosures were up by 21 percent in 2025 and that the age of a median first-time homebuyer has hit a record 40 years old, citing various analyses. As for rental properties, more than 22 million families have been paying more than 30 percent of their incomes on rent, while more than 5 million households are behind on rent.

“Donald Trump promised to lower costs ‘on day one,'” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said. “Specifically, he claimed he would cut ‘the cost of a new home in half.’ He has failed. People across the country continue to struggle with the cost of housing.”

However, data show that certain housing pressures have eased under the Trump administration.

For instance, in January 2025, when Trump came into office, the weekly average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit a peak of 7.04 percent, which has now fallen by nearly a full percentage point to 6.09 percent for the week that ended on Jan. 22, according to the latest data from Freddie Mac.

Data from the National Association of Realtors show that in January 2025, a homeowner had to pay 24.6 percent of his or her income on a mortgage to afford a median-priced existing single-family home. By November, this had dropped to 23.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the median U.S. monthly housing payment declined to $2,413 during the four weeks ending on Jan. 11, the biggest decline since October 2024 and down by 5.5 percent on an annual basis, according to a Jan. 15 report by real estate brokerage Redfin.

“Housing payments are coming down because mortgage rates are falling,” Redfin stated.

The recent decline in rates has been attributed to Trump’s decision to order federal agencies to purchase $200 billion ‌in mortgage bonds in order to lower housing costs.