Civil Rights Department Blasts Federal Housing Proposal Threatening Eviction or Family Separation for Tens of Thousands of Californians

SACRAMENTO – The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) today submitted a comment letter opposing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) proposal to deny federal housing assistance to eligible families if they live with a family member who is ineligible due to their immigration status. The proposed rule change — which upends a decades-old system that has allowed families to stay together while not spending federal funds on ineligible individuals — threatens to force tens of thousands of Californians to lose their homes and will undermine California’s protections against discrimination in housing based on national origin.

“The federal government has again and again shown it doesn’t care who gets hurt in its reckless attacks on immigrant communities,” said CRD Director Kevin Kish. “This proposal doesn’t make anything better. It just creates more chaos. Enough is enough.”

Cruel and Unnecessary

Under existing rules, HUD already pro-rates benefits to only provide support to family members who have confirmed their immigration status and does not provide benefits to those who are ineligible under federal law. In addition, HUD’s own analysis shows that the proposed policy will not advance its asserted goal of making more housing assistance available, in part because non-eligible tenants can help reduce federal costs for eligible participants by covering portions of a household’s total rent out of their own pockets.

Instead, the proposed rule unnecessarily forces some of California’s most vulnerable households to confront — in HUD’s own words — a “ruthless” choice between the loss of their home or family separation, with a disproportionate impact on children. In total, the proposal threatens an estimated 7,190 mixed-eligibility households in California with termination from HUD programs, putting roughly 28,670 Californians at risk of eviction or family separation.

California Pushes Back

In the comment letter, CRD calls on HUD to withdraw the proposed change in its entirety and warns:

• The proposal intentionally discriminates against recipients of federal housing assistance because of their national origin and will have a disparate impact on Latino families.
• Extensive publicly available evidence shows that the proposed rule is driven by bias, including a well-established record of the administration’s anti-immigrant sentiment.
• HUD failed to analyze impacts of the rule on state and local governments or consider costs to California agencies or programs, including impacts on CRD.
• The proposal is in tension with express prohibitions under California law against discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived immigration status and national origin.
• The proposal’s new verification process could cause significant numbers of seniors and people with disabilities to lose assistance, even where they are clearly eligible as U.S. citizens.

If you or someone you know has experienced housing discrimination, CRD may be able to assist you through its complaint process. The department also provides general information and factsheets online about civil rights protections, including with respect to fair housing.

The comment letter was prepared with the support of Associate Chief Counsel Azadeh Hosseinian, Assistant Chief Counsel James Zahradka, and Senior Legal Analyst Shanna Niroumandzadeh.

You can learn more by reading CRD’s comment letter.

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) is the state agency charged with enforcing California’s civil rights laws. CRD’s mission is to protect the people of California from unlawful discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and state-funded programs and activities, and from hate violence and human trafficking. For more information, visit calcivilrights.ca.gov.

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