After the publication of this article, the Maine Housing Authority responded to a request for comment from The Maine Wire.
“MaineHousing will comply with state and federal law as we have always done,” said MaineHousing Communications Director Scott Thistle.
“MaineHousing serves as the housing authority for the parts of Maine that do not have their own local housing authority, so as a housing authority, we only administer about one-third of the Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8 vouchers) in Maine; the other two-thirds are administered by local housing authorities like Portland Housing, for example,” he added.
“Most of Maine’s larger municipalities have their own local housing authorities; in all, there are 26 of them. MaineHousing does not oversee them or have any authority over them. Also, we have not yet received an official and/or formal request from HUD for this tenant information, although HUD would already have access to it,” he concluded
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced a crackdown on illegal immigrants living in taxpayer-funded housing programs on Friday, demanding a nationwide review of program participants.
“No longer will illegal immigrants be able to leave citizenship boxes blank or take advantage of HUD-funded housing, riding the coattails of hardworking American citizens,” said Turner’s announcement.
HUD is requiring that all public housing authorities provide a full list of all tenants receiving taxpayer-funded Section 8 housing vouchers or living in HUD-funded housing developments.
According to its leadership, HUD will use the data to identify and remove any illegal immigrants benefiting from the programs.
“HUD is taking another direct and forceful action to steward taxpayer dollars wisely and end the subsidization of open border policies in HUD-funded programs and policies,” said Turner.
Turner claimed that only one in four American families eligible for housing-assistance programs actually takes advantage of them, due in part to illegal immigrants filling spaces in the program that could be used by citizens.
Authorities are now requiring that participant information must include names, mailing addresses, number of bedrooms, cost of apartment units, and proof of citizenship or eligible legal immigration status.
Turner did not specify whether the information will be shared with immigration authorities and used to remove illegal aliens from the country, as well as from the taxpayer-funded welfare programs.
State authorities must provide the requested information within 30 days, the federal agency said. HUD will levy all available enforcement actions, including examining funding and housing program eligibility, against housing authorities that refuse to comply with the information request.
Maine has previously refused to share information with the federal government when Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “go jump in the Gulf of Maine” when she was asked to provide voter roll data so they could ensure that no ineligible voters were registered.
