Bill > H3431

This bill amends Chapter 23B of the General Laws to establish new requirements for public housing applications, specifically concerning the verification of applicants' identities and backgrounds. It mandates that all applicants and household members aged 18 and older must provide a Social Security number (SSN) when applying for public housing, and non-resident applicants must provide an alien registration number. The bill also requires that the immigration status and alien registration numbers of non-citizen applicants be verified through the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and this information will be re-verified upon the expiration of their documents. Furthermore, all applicants and household members aged 14 and older will have their criminal offender record information checked before being admitted to housing, and providing an SSN is a prerequisite for this check and for overall housing eligibility, with housing authorities granted full access to this criminal record information. Importantly, the bill prohibits the use of temporary placeholder SSNs for applicants, except in cases of lawfully protected status.