Federal housing authorities are tightening scrutiny of tenants' immigration status — but attorneys say the move is creating a legal minefield for landlords.
Since mid-December 2025, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has required landlords and public housing authorities to submit detailed information about tenants' citizenship and immigration documentation. The agency reaffirmed that demand in a January 23, 2026, letter giving recipients 30 days to comply.
The mandate stems from a February 19, 2025, presidential order issued by Donald Trump directing HUD to preserve federal housing benefits for U.S. citizens and legally qualified non-citizens. As part of its enforcement, HUD launched a new Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system to collect eligibility data and released figures showing that nearly 200,000 tenants require verification, almost 25,000 deceased individuals are still enrolled in programs and about 6,000 non-American tenants are deemed ineligible.
"Today's action to verify the immigration eligibility of all HUD-assisted households is a major step forward to ensure we put American families first and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse," HUD Assistant Secretary of Public and Indian Housing Ben Hobbs said in prepared remarks.
"It is essential we prioritize our limited resources to eligible families only."
But the rollout has alarmed housing attorneys. Edward Susolik, CEO, senior partner, and trial attorney at Callahan & Blaine, told GlobeSt.com the directive "puts landlords in a truly impossible position." He says that while owners must verify eligibility, "any misstep creates issues for Fair Housing discrimination or two competing legal obligations — and trying to abide by one means violating the other."
According to Susolik, reporting through the EIV system "creates a discrimination risk and a huge legal problem." Landlords must review tenant documentation, but any request for additional records or actions based on those findings could trigger Fair Housing and discrimination claims.
He outlines four areas of potential exposure: discrimination lawsuits under fair housing laws, wrongful eviction claims, breach-of-lease claims that prohibit terminations after occupancy and disputes over liability if HUD demands repayment of funds tied to deceased tenants.
"If HUD comes back to say that they were ineligible and demands the funds, but the landlord relied on HUD's own systems, there is going to be a showdown over liability," Susolik says. He adds that the lack of guidance on how to handle surviving household members makes the situation even more precarious.
Although HUD referenced "corrective actions," the agency has not defined whether that entails updated paperwork or tenant terminations. Susolik calls that vagueness "absolutely dangerous," warning that landlords face sanctions if they fail to act but lawsuits if they act too aggressively.
"There really is no safe space for good-faith compliance in this mess," he says.
"The most frustrating aspect of this for my clients is that satisfying one of these requirements directly violates another. It's the opposite of a win-win — legally, it's lose-lose all around."
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