Public housing agencies across the country are being asked to share the personal information of tenants receiving rental assistance under Section 8 with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as federal authorities target immigrant families served by the program.
The move, according to HUD Secretary Scott Turner, will help make sure that what he called “illegal aliens”—foreign-born individuals without legal authorization or permission to stay in the U.S.—would not receive rental help over American citizens.
“D.C. Housing Authority is on notice—we are demanding all citizenship information for residents,” Turner wrote on X last weekend. “We are telling the same to the more than 3,000 Public Housing Authorities across the country. The taxpayer-funded vacation is over.”
What Is Section 8?
When people talk about Section 8, they usually refer to the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) federal program, which helps low-income families, the elderly, individuals with disability, and veterans with rent in the private market.
The program helps more than 2.3 million households rent in the private market, according to estimates by the Urban Institute.
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According to the HUD website, participants in the program can choose any eligible housing unit, including single-family homes, townhouses, and apartments, with rent partially covered by a subsidy paid directly to the landlord.
Currently, there are about 2,000 Local Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) across the U.S. that administer the HCV program with funding from HUD.
What Does HUD Want From PHAs?
In a note he shared on social media on Saturday, Turner wrote that HUD is requesting every PHA in the country to provide “a full and comprehensive accounting of all tenants who are receiving a Section 8 voucher and/or residing in HUD-funded housing.”
This information includes proof of American citizenship and eligible immigration status as defined by the law, as well as recipients’ names and mailing addresses, the rental unit’s number of bedrooms and cost.
Proof of American citizenship or eligible immigration status is already a requirement for eligibility to receive rental assistance under the Section 8 HVC program. What Turner is asking for is proof that PHAs are being thorough with their checks and not letting anyone who should not be receiving federal rental assistance slip through the cracks.
“Whether you like it or not, we will uphold the law to its fullest extent. If you are here illegally, it’s time to pack your bags,” Turner wrote on X. According to Turner’s note, PHAs have 30 days to provide HUD with the information requested from the day of receiving the department’s notice. Failure to comply could result in “an examination of HUD funding and/or evaluation of PHA program eligibility,” Turner said.
The crackdown on illegal immigration is not quite the biggest change to Section 8 that tenants, analysts, and policymakers are holding their breath for this year. Another bigger change could be announced later this year—if Trump has it his way.
What Changes Does Trump Want To Implement To Section 8?
The U.S. president has proposed a 51 percent cut in gross discretionary funding from HUD for the 2025 fiscal year budget, which would effectively halve funding for federal rental assistance and let the states decide how to distribute the money left. In fiscal year 2025, for reference, the HUD’s budget was $89.1 billion.
Should this drastic cut be implemented, federal programs including Section 8 would be eliminated. In their place, the Trump administration’s 2026 budget requests funding for a new “state rental assistance program,” which would provide HUD funding directly to states.
This new program would have a two-year limit on assistance for beneficiaries, with the exception of the elderly and individuals with disabilities, to incentivize self-sufficiency among able-bodied recipients.
“The Budget empowers States by transforming the current Federal dysfunctional rental assistance programs into a State-based formula grant which would allow States to design their own rental assistance programs based on their unique needs and preferences,” Trump’s executive office wrote in a series of recommendations sent to the chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Republican Senator Susan Collins, in May.
How Are These Changes Being Received?
Many—including housing advocates and policymakers—fear the impact that Trump’s changes to rental assistance programs could have on struggling households.
A report published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in July warned that more than 3 million people—half of them children—might be put at risk of eviction and homelessness if rental assistance under Section 8 is cut off for recipients after two years.
“Most of these people are in households that include someone who works but doesn’t earn enough to afford the rent,” the center wrote. “Everyone should have a safe, stable, affordable place to live. Expanding rental assistance would bring us closer to this goal, while imposing arbitrary limits that take assistance away from people who need help paying the rent would take us in the wrong direction.”
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, previously condemned the Trump administration’s plans to introduce cuts to Section 8, also known as Housing Choice Vouchers, as an initiative that would exacerbate Americans’ housing affordability struggles.
“Due to a lack of available funding, three in four households eligible for federal rental assistance programs do not receive it. The Trump Budget makes this situation even worse,” Sanders wrote in a note about the president’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” released earlier this year.
What Will Happen Next?
Ultimately, Congress would decide on changes to Section 8. Lawmakers are on break until September 2 and have until the end of the month, September 30, to finalize and approve the funding bill.
