Carey L Biron -
ears are mounting across the United States over a proposal by President Donald Trump’s administration that would force tens of thousands of families to choose between splitting up or being homeless together.
The proposed rule change, on which a national public comment period ended in July, would deny public housing assistance for “mixed-status” households — those in which at least one member is an undocumented immigrant. Housing secretary Ben Carson said in May — when the change was first proposed — that it was a necessary move to reduce long wait times for housing assistance.
But housing researchers and advocates say the proposal would not have the desired effect and would instead lead to higher rates of homelessness. Analysis from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development said the rule change would affect more than 108,000 people. That includes 55,000 children, many of whom are American citizens with an undocumented parent, according to the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA), a national non-profit focusing on affordable housing.
That is the situation facing Cari Torres in Los Angeles, California. The single mother from Jalisco, Mexico, is undocumented, but her son was born in the United States.
“If the rule goes on, we will be homeless, my son and I,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, noting that rental rates in Los Angeles are very high and affordable housing largely unavailable.
Torres, 37, said she and her son would probably be forced to stay with friends: “I don’t know, and, honestly, I can’t imagine how bad this could be.” She added that many other people she knows are in a similar situation and are “afraid of what could happen”.
Like many US cities, Los Angeles is already dealing with an acute housing crisis. The city’s homelessness rate rose by 16 per cent in the past year alone, according to government figures released in June.
“There are over 50,000 people in the county experiencing homelessness, and we’re going to add something like 20 per cent more through this policy,” said Bill Przylucki of People Organized for Westside Renewal, a community development group in Los Angeles.
“And the people who would be added are folks who are even more vulnerable because they would face challenges to employment and accessing benefits because of this status issue,” he said. US taxpayers do not subsidise housing for undocumented immigrants under current policy; rather, subsidy rates are prorated depending on the number of eligible members. — Thomson Reuters Foundation
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