Protest arrests and HUD

There are a lot of people right now coming down to support Occupy ICE movements, here in Portland and elsewhere in the US and one of the things that needs to be addressed is if you are detained what happens to your HUD benefits. Now, IANAL but myself and others have been talking to legal counsel, Home Forward (the housing authority in Portland), and doing a lot of digging through the relevant legal frameworks over the last few days to get as accurate of information as we can. This will be updated as we get more information, and look for a future post for information around SSDI, SSI, TANF, and SNAP as well. (SSI/SSDI info here) (TANF/SNAP info here)

If you are detained for 28 days or more (Home forward's number was 30 days) you WILL lose your HUD benefits, if you (or your family) fails to tell the housing authority that you are/will be out of the unit for that long the entire family may also lose their benefits. After this, the reports vary with some saying that you will lose your benefits permanently and others saying that you are free to reapply when the wait list opens again (in the case of Home Forward, this is anticipated at being 4+ years). That being said, even if you can reapply you may no longer qualify because depending on the type of crime it may exclude you from benefits for a period of time. According to the home forward criteria for residency: "A felony involving serious injury, kidnapping, death, arson, rape, sex crimes and/or child sex crimes, extensive property damage, drug-related offenses, class A/felony burglary or class A/felony robbery" all correspond to a denial regardless of when the activity occurred. For most protests these are less likely to come up, but in the case of occupy ICE we are dealing with potential federal offenses and if they decide that there is extensive property damage, serious injury, death, etc. than you do risk falling into this category.

Denial for 7 years happens for "any felony, misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor involving assault, intimidation, sex, drugs, property damage, or weapons violations." This is the area that is most likely to happen as assault and property damage are common charges for protests of this nature. It is also worth noting here that these crimes do  not require a conviction. Per again Home Forward: "we may deny an application if there is credible information about criminal behavior, even if there has not been a conviction for such behavior." Legally, they have the ability to use a "preponderance of evidence" and do not require there to be an actual conviction for crimes to lead to a denial. In many cases you can use a professional reference letter to help your case with regards to past criminal history, but that does not help if you are a current HUD recipient. Finally, if you are not the person with HUD but a family member that you live with is the person with benefits your activities can impact their HUD; it is not an automatic loss of benefits but there is language in the Home Forward statement of family obligations that includes family members not committing crimes so the potential is there.

If you are not detained for 28 days or more many of these cautions still apply, depending on the severity of the crime, the specifics of what occurred, and how long you are detained for you may still lose your HUD benefits. It is down to the individual housing authority on if that occurs, and potentially even the individual assessing the case. As usual, you have the right to appeal, but it is not guaranteed. The person I spoke with at Home Forward said that apart from felonies and violent crimes you are not as likely to lose your benefits with a detention of less than 30 days, it is however, NOT a surety and any criminal activity could be used to revoke your HUD.