B-O-G-U-S AP Story: "Many Illegal Immigrants Live in Public Housing".

I have read the AP Story HERE several times and have concluded that it deserves a favorite phrase from NPR's Car Talk: B-O-G-U-S.

The story contains but also omits some important facts, includes opinion and speculation, and fails to state that HUD does not pay subsidy for ineligible non citizens and that HUD subsidy therefore is less for families with some ineligible non citizens members. My comments are in bold below.

Facts:
"the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that 29,570 people — 0.4 percent of all those in federally funded housing — are "ineligible noncitizens".

1. Starting with the most obvious, the AP story provides NO source (report, study etc) for the count of "29,570 people".
2. Using figures in the story my projection is that the total universe of residents in federally funded housing is 7,392,500. (29,570 /.04%=7,392,500). (Page 408 of the 2008 HUD PAR says HUD has a total of 4,748,639 public and assisted housing units. Dividing the federally funded housing population of 7,392,500 calculated from the data in the story by this unit count results in a calculation of an average number of 1.56 residents per unit. While possible, that figure seems low to me).
   

Speculation:

"It doesn't include housing funded by state and local governments, where eligibility requirements vary."

1. Stating the obvious, local or state assisted rental housing is NOT "federally funded". The story does not include a count of how many of these kinds of units there are, and the % given for federally funded housing may or may not be similar for these kinds of units. AND, as the story points out the rules that apply to these units would be different, and determined by local and state rules, and not by the federal government.

"Some may be on temporary visas, such as highly educated workers or college students, but many are believed to be illegal immigrants."Frank Bean, director of the University of California, Irvine's Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, estimates at least half of ineligible noncitizens — or about 15,000 — are illegal immigrants with U.S.-born children."

2. The AP Story doesn't say what the basis for this estimate is. "Are believed" signals an OPINION; but using this OPINION of 15,000 would further reduce the "illegal" immigrant % of federally funded housing residents to .02%.

Moreover, if the most recent Pew Hispanic Center estimate of 11,900,000 unauthorized immigrants is accurate, and using the quoted OPINION of 15,000 "illegal" immigrants, this would mean that out of every 1,000 unauthorized / "illegal" immigrants in the U.S, less than 1.3 live in federally funded housing. (11,900,000/15,000 *1,000=1.3 residents per thousand).

By any reasonable standard, 1.3 out of every 1,000 unauthorized immigrants living in federally funding housing does NOT meet the definition of "many".

Omitted Facts:

1. HUD does NOT pay subsidy for non citizen residents. With some limited exceptions, HUD rental subsidy is prorated/reduced for a family to exclude the % of the family composed of ineligible non citizens.
2. This means that families living in federally funded housing that include ineligible non citizens get LESS HUD subsidy per unit than the same sized family with the same income that has no ineligible non citizens.
   
3. HUD's does NOT use pro rated rents or allow eligible non citizens to live in federally assisted housing on a whim; its the LAW.