HUD Data Privacy Act of 2026

Key Points

• This bill would stop the Department of Housing and Urban Development from sharing personal information about people who receive federal housing assistance, except to verify their eligibility for benefits or determine what benefits they should get.
• Other government agencies or private organizations that receive this data from HUD would also be banned from using it for anything beyond checking benefit eligibility. This creates a two-way restriction on how the information flows.
• The bill explicitly prevents HUD data from being used for civil immigration enforcement, making clear that housing assistance records cannot be a pipeline for deportation actions against residents.
• There are narrow exceptions allowing data sharing for active criminal investigations, preventing immediate threats to life, and sharing anonymized data for research or statistics.
• The bill covers people in the two largest federal housing programs: public housing under Section 9 of the Housing Act of 1937 and rental assistance (including Section 8 vouchers) under Section 8 of the same law.