Keep Families Together: HUD Must Keep Immigrants Whole and Housed

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Keep Families Together (KFT) today celebrated their campaign and renewed commitment to fight against the Trump administration’s cruel proposal to evict families with mixed immigration status from HUD housing. KFT helped organize a groundswell of opposition to a proposal that would force tens of thousands of immigrant families to either separate or lose the assistance they rely on to keep a roof over their heads.

In response to Trump’s HUD’s harmful proposal, KFT organized thousands of comments from HUD tenants and their allies, hosted a widely-attended webinar, and launched a website, available in both English and Spanish, with resources for tenants, advocates, and organizers to submit comments to HUD. The overwhelming majority of the over 13,000 comments strongly opposed the proposal. 

“Although the comment period is over, our work to keep families together and protect the federal housing programs doesn’t stop. We will continue to fight Trump and HUD’s effort to  scapegoat immigrants and distract from their failure to fix the housing crisis. We’re building a multiracial democracy where everyone, no matter where we come from or what language we speak–has the freedom to make a good living, care for our families, and live in a safe and affordable home,” said the Keep Families Together campaign.

The campaign helped organize opposition to the proposal from hundreds of stakeholders from diverse sectors working at the local, state, and national level, all demanding that Trump’s HUD withdraw its proposal and keep families together and housed, including:

• Housing justice organizations, including tenant organizations, public housing authorities and other housing providers, service providers, and advocates; 
• Immigrant rights organizations;
• Organizations fighting to protect the well-being of children and their families, including medical societies and public health organizations;
• Organizations advocating on behalf of older adults and people with disabilities;
• Organizations serving survivors of gender-based violence;
• Fair housing and civil rights organizations;
• Funders and philanthropic organizations;
• State and local government agencies;
• Representative Delia C. Ramirez, who introduced H.Res.1198, a resolution recognizing that stable housing keeps families together;
• Congresswoman Nanette Barragán, who led a letter signed by 51 members of Congress;
• Ranking Member Waters and Representatives Velázquez, Vargas, and Garcia, who led a letter signed by all 18 U.S. House members on the Financial Services Committee; and
• A letter from the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) must abide by the federally-mandated rulemaking process and review all submitted comments, both online and through the mail, and address these comments in the final rule. KFT and its partners will closely monitor the proposal’s movement. 

Keep Families Together is a national campaign led by the National Housing Law Project and the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition.