Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner is placing the blame for America’s worsening housing crunch squarely on what he describes as an unchecked surge of illegal immigration that intensified under the Biden administration. According to Turner, the fallout has landed hardest on low-income Americans who are increasingly priced out of rental markets that were already stretched thin.
Fox News reported that every two years, HUD publishes its Worst Case Housing Needs Report, the agency’s most comprehensive assessment of housing affordability for low income renters.
The report measures how many households lack access to affordable and adequate housing, tracks whether conditions are improving or deteriorating, and identifies which populations are bearing the brunt of market pressures. Lawmakers rely on the findings to evaluate shortages in low cost rental supply, shape federal housing programs, and determine who is being left behind by current policy failures.
Turner told Fox News that this year’s findings reveal the consequences of Biden era immigration policies that flooded housing markets with new demand while supply lagged far behind.
“The unchecked illegal immigration and open borders policies allowed by the Biden administration continue to put significant strain on housing, pricing out American families,” Turner said.
“These policies have plagued America’s housing market, but in President Trump, Americans finally have a leader fighting to restore sanity to American immigration policy.”
HUD’s 2025 report found that increased immigration played a substantial role in driving up housing costs, particularly because of the unrestricted nature of the influx. The report estimates that roughly 15 million illegal aliens now account for 30 percent of the foreign born population in the United States.
Turner also noted that HUD has rolled back Federal Housing Authority backed mortgages extended to illegal immigrants during the Biden administration, arguing that Biden “turned a blind eye” to enforcement.
In states like California and New York, immigrants accounted for all rental growth and more than half of owner occupied housing growth in recent years. Nationally, the foreign born population drove more than 60 percent of rental demand growth, with two-thirds of new rental demand attributed to foreign born households.
“This further demonstrates that non-citizen households are playing an increasing role in the household growth that is straining the affordable housing supply,” the 109-page report said.
HUD concluded that without the recent migrant surge, housing inventory pressures would have been significantly lower and price increases far less severe. The report estimated that nearly 784,000 fewer households would have formed absent the surge.
Despite regular publication since 1991, the 2025 report stands out for issuing a sharper warning about the housing impact of illegal immigration. In response, Turner ordered an audit of public housing authorities to verify the citizenship status of residents receiving subsidized housing.
“No longer will illegal aliens be able to leave citizenship boxes blank or take advantage of HUD-funded housing, riding the coattails of hardworking American citizens,” Turner said.
“Currently, HUD only serves one out of four eligible families due, in part, to the lack of enforcement of prohibition against federally funded assistance to illegal aliens,” he continued.
Vice President JD Vance echoed Turner’s conclusions while highlighting falling rents following stepped up immigration enforcement.
“Six months of zero illegals released into our country. Two million illegals removed. Rents dropped for the fourth straight month. Coincidence? I think not,” Turner said.
Vance stated that the “connection between illegal immigration and skyrocketing housing costs is as clear as day.”
In the fight between open borders ideology and affordable housing for Americans, the data is making one thing clear: mass migration is a major factor that makes housing unaffordable for millions of Americans.
