WASHINGTON, D.C. — A sweeping federal audit has uncovered widespread eligibility failures across HUD-funded housing nationwide, prompting the Department of Housing and Urban Development to order immediate corrective action from housing authorities and property owners within 30 days.
Following a joint audit conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Homeland Security, HUD identified nearly 200,000 tenants requiring eligibility verification, approximately 25,000 deceased tenants still listed in housing records, and nearly 6,000 non-American tenants deemed ineligible for federally subsidized housing.
HUD officials said the findings reveal systemic breakdowns in compliance with long-standing federal requirements and represent a significant misuse of taxpayer-funded housing assistance.
“We will leave no stone unturned,” 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. Ineligible non-citizens have no place to receive welfare benefits. With this new directive and audit, HUD is putting new processes in place to safeguard taxpayer resources and put the American people first.”
HUD Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Ben Hobbs said the enforcement push is aimed at restoring integrity to housing programs strained by long waitlists and limited funding.
“There are hundreds of thousands of American families on housing waitlists across the country,” Hobbs said. “It is essential we prioritize our limited resources to eligible families only.”
The directive follows a letter HUD sent to Public Housing Authorities and participating property owners last month, reiterating their legal obligations under Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980 and President Trump’s Executive Order 14218, Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders. Both require verification of citizenship or eligible immigration status prior to admission to HUD-assisted housing.
As part of an interagency effort formalized last year, HUD Secretary Turner and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem signed the American Housing Programs for American Citizens memorandum of understanding, designed to prevent federal housing assistance from being improperly directed to illegal aliens. Under the agreement, HUD and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services completed, for the first time, a full upload of Section 8 and Section 9 tenant files into the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system for immigration status checks.
HUD said Public Housing Authorities and property owners must now review their EIV-SAVE Tenant Match Reports, confirm accurate reporting of citizenship or immigration status, and initiate corrective actions where violations are found. Agencies and owners that fail to comply face sanctions, including the recapture of federal funds used to pay housing assistance on behalf of ineligible or deceased tenants.
The department said the enforcement action is intended to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse while ensuring HUD-funded housing serves eligible American families as intended under federal law.
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