STATEMENT: Anti-Immigrant MOU Shows HUD Sec. Turner Misunderstands Own Agency’s Programs

With his new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with DHS, HUD Secretary Scott Turner is again shifting blame onto vulnerable communities instead of addressing the root causes of our housing and homelessness crises.

And he’s doing it while misrepresenting how his agency’s programs actually work.

The MOU establishes an interagency partnership to investigate alleged “abuse” of housing programs by “ineligible” immigrants through “data-sharing” and collaboration with immigration enforcement.

Though vague, it appears aimed at surveilling and intimidating mixed-status families: where some members are eligible U.S. citizens and others are ineligible for subsidy based on immigration status. Their assistance is already pro-rated to only cover eligible household members.

Rather than invest in housing or address record homelessness, HUD is helping Trump terrorize immigrant communities while working to discourage and disqualify eligible, rent-paying residents from programs they have a right to access.

HUD should be pursuing its core mission by protecting those most harmed by corporate greed, discrimination and decades of disinvestment, but Sec. Turner keeps opting for harmful distractions like fudging "savings" numbers with DOGE, attacking homeless and LGBTQ+ people, and scapegoating immigrants to manufacture outrage and justify cuts.

This isn’t about program integrity — it’s about surveillance, fear, and falsely blaming immigrant families for the failures of a housing system that puts profits over everyday people.

While this kind of cynical, bullying politics might impress hate-fueled billionaires like Elon Musk, regular people need real solutions to unprecedented homelessness and skyrocketing rents.

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Alliance for Housing Justice is a coalition of organizations including Center for Popular Democracy, Housing Justice for All NY, Housing Now! CA, Liberation in a Generation, PolicyLink, People's Action, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Housing Law Project, PowerSwitch Action, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Public Advocates & Right to the City Alliance 

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