On November 26, HUD issued a Federal Register notice expanding its interpretation of “federal public benefit” under Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) to include a wide range of Community Planning and Development (CPD) and Homeless Assistance Programs such as: HOME, HOME-ARP, the Housing Trust Fund, CDBG (including Disaster Recovery), HOPWA, ESG, Continuum of Care, Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing, and PRICE.
In Context: Prior to this notice, PRWORA only applied to public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, and certain other HUD-assisted housing programs.
Because PRWORA bars non-qualified aliens from receiving federal public benefits, grantees administering these programs will now need to verify the immigration status of assisted households, and HUD will update guidance on how this verification must be carried out.
