Today we are offering an amendment seeking to avoid the harsh effects of new and most recent HUD regulations that impose. retroactively. strict documentary requirements proving eligibility. on all present tenants of public housing. We do this not because eligibility requirements should not be met. but because they will be applied retroactively on people already given housing under previous HUD regulations. This will affect all those aged 18 or older who will be required to provide documentary proof of their eligible immigration status. This massive paperwork burden. scheduled for implementation beginning July 31. will present a very costly bureaucratic nightmare to public housing authorities whose operating expenses are already severely limited. My amendment prevents retroactive provisions from being applied by exempting from the verification process only those persons currently receiving subsidized housing assistance. It retains the HUD restrictions on Federal assistance to prospective tenants. It permits those families who are displaced by Federal action to receive relocation assistance. The latest HUD regulations threaten all families in federally assisted housing with eviction or the breakup of the family unit unless they can meet new strict documentation requirements proving eligible immigration status. Approximately 45 percent of HUD residents are elderly and most are presumed to be legal residents. But these senior citizens and others may have been born at home and not in the hospital and have no birth certificate.
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immigration