Some regional nonprofits administering the $322 million emergency rental assistance program created by Governor Tony Evers may be unintentionally discouraging non-U.S. citizens from applying, even though immigration status holds no bearing on eligibility for the federally financed program.
At least eight of the 14 organizations administering the Wisconsin Emergency Rental Assistance (WERA) program ask applicants to share their Social Security numbers through pre-screening forms, a review has found. In some cases, applicants are asked to submit the Social Security numbers of every member of their household.
The eight agencies administer aid to 35 of Wisconsin’s 68 WERA-eligible counties. Meanwhile, only seven of the organizations as of March 24 offered online information in languages other than English in a state where about 260,000 residents primarily speak Spanish and nearly 40,000 speak Hmong.
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