Trump's secret plan to limit rental assistance

Prevent Child Abuse New York has hired a new home visiting special projects assistant. Maggie Dickson is taking on that role at the Troy-based nonprofit, according to a spokesperson. Dickson will work on legislative issues related to home visits in the child welfare system.

Nonprofits went into high gear over the weekend amid fears of mass immigration raids. The Trump administration had promised that such raids would take place on June 23 in major cities across the country, eliciting responses from New York nonprofits and elected officials alike. This included campaigns on social media to help people know their rights when questioned by immigration officials. Other nonprofits highlighted their efforts to provide legal representation to people fighting deportation.

The New York Civil Liberties Union is finding that teens on Long Island are being labeled as gang members for no good reason. Hundreds of juveniles have been designated as “gang associates” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Supposed evidence of gang affiliation that police have shared with ICE include doodles of country area codes, a drawing of a school mascot, and even, in one case, a teen wearing a sports jersey,” reads a June 20 post on the NYCLU website.

There is a new co-chair of the board the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. Jelena Kovačević is taking on the role, alongside Ofer Cohen, founder of TerraCRG. Kovačević is the first woman to lead the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, according to a spokesperson.

The Trump administration is looking to tighten requirements for federal rental assistance. A proposed rule change would require U.S. citizens to provide more documentation in order to be eligible for aid from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.This would jeopardize assistance for tens of thousands of people who might be able to provide all the necessary documentation. About 12% of people with an income below $25,000 per year lack proof of citizenship, according to an NYU Brennan Center for Justice survey.

The proposal would also make a person ineligible for assistance if they share a residence with someone whose citizenship cannot be proven. Current rules allow an applicant to receive prorated assistance based on the number of people whose citizenship can be proven, according to a June 20 analysis from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

“The proposal would abandon this sensible approach, which ensures that ineligible people don’t receive aid without denying assistance to eligible family members or forcing families to separate – and which Republican and Democratic administrations have followed for over two decades,” reads the analysis.

The deadline to provide comment on the proposed rule change is July 9 at 11:59 p.m. Comments can be submitted here.