Wyoming executives tangle over limiting housing funding to U.S. citizens, delaying grants statewide

Secretary of State Gray wants new condition for state dollars

JACKSON — Nearly two dozen Wyoming communities, including the Town of Jackson, will have to wait a few more weeks to find out if they will receive state funding for housing projects.

Town and county officials will also learn whether or not a state agency will need to verify if tenants in their future housing projects are U.S. citizens as a condition of accepting state dollars.

Secretary of State Chuck Gray proposed the citizenship requirement at the State Loan and Investment Board’s April 2 meeting, sparking lengthy debate, an outburst from Gov. Mark Gordon and a 4-1 vote to delay divvying up $5 million for projects “aimed at alleviating housing shortages” until April 23.

“Our municipalities are working hard to meet infrastructure demands, housing needs, and economic opportunity,” Ashley Harpstreith, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, said in a statement Tuesday. “What they deserved from the SLIB was a decision that allocated those funds and recognized the housing challenges across our state and the need for balanced, principal solutions.”

Jackson Mayor Arne Jorgensen was also disappointed. He said he didn’t expect the town to receive the funding for its S4 Flats affordable housing project. Twenty-one other entities applied and Jackson had previously received grant funding for the Flat Creek Apartments, which have been controversial. 

But he said the board was “distracted by a side issue” — the citizenship question.

“An issue that, while it may be very important to some, does not address the structural housing needs around the state,” he said.

The state’s top five executives who sit on the board ultimately couldn’t come to an agreement about verifying tenants’ citizenship, though they didn’t disagree with the concept outright. Instead, they cited concerns about the administrative process.

Toward the end of an almost nine-hour meeting, Gray said he wanted the Office of State Lands and Investments, which is responsible for administering the Unmet Housing Needs Grant Program, to use the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement tool to check whether housing applicants were citizens. His office uses it to maintain voter registration lists. He asked for findings to be brought back to the State Loan and Investment Board “periodically.”

“This is pretty common sense, that when you have a housing need, that it should go to citizens,” Gray said.

An executive outburst

Gray’s proposal faced scrutiny during and after the meeting.

He made two motions during the meeting to place citizenship conditions on the housing funds. 

Earlier in the day, Gordon ruled the first out of order. Gray sent out a press release during the meeting criticizing him. 

Later in the day, Gordon and the board were more open to discussion.

The five executives decided to go into executive session and emerged with little consensus about how the verification process works. 

All of Gray’s colleagues, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, State Auditor Kristi Racines, State Treasurer Curt Meier and Gordon, had questions about administrative and cost burden and how it would mesh with state and federal law.

After board members continued to debate the issue, Gordon tried to put it  to bed. Meier followed up by asking to vote on Gray’s proposal.

But Gray wanted to address “inaccurate things that were said” during the debate. As members briefly tried to talk over one another, meeting decorum quickly faltered. Tensions between Gray and Gordon also bubbled over.

“Hold on. Hold on. Stop,” Gordon said to Gray. “Shut up.”

Gordon stood up and told Gray to “Come on.” The recording cut out. When the board came back to order, it  tabled the housing grants discussion until April 23.

“The conversation happening right now is not getting us to a productive place,” Degenfelder said. “I personally would like to get to a place where we are ensuring that our taxpayer-funded benefits are going to U.S. citizens. I think we can get there.”

Some members recognized that delaying the conversation would leave the board and municipalities even more short on time, and Gordon apologized to all the local officials who traveled to Cheyenne for the meeting and didn’t leave with clarity.

“Sometimes it takes a bit to get done,” he said.

Considering the policy

Some state executives told the News&Guide that they will need to weigh Gray’s proposal further.

Secretary of State Gray didn’t respond to a request for comment, but he did send out a press release Monday calling Gordon’s outburst “deeply troubling.” He defended his proposal and said it mirrors President Donald Trump’s actions at the federal level.

The News&Guide wasn’t able to connect with Meier before press time Tuesday.

Racines said Gray’s motion took the board by surprise. She supports the idea, but she raised questions about whether immigrants in the country legally should be allowed in state-funded housing. She said she needs to study the issue.

Gordon doesn’t support taxpayer funds being used by “any person who has come into this country illegally,” spokesperson Amy Edmonds said, but he does support “all legal and noncitizens having access to the same opportunities as other people living in Wyoming.”

“That question needs to be carefully scrutinized under other federal and state laws, including the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in renting, buying, financing or advertising based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability,” Edmonds wrote in a statement.

Degenfelder didn’t answer specific questions but said in a statement that she “vehemently opposes extending any publicly-funded benefits to anyone in this country illegally.” She said she is working with state agencies to find a solution that aligns with Trump’s executive order called “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” state and federal law and the Wyoming Constitution.

After returning to Jackson from the meeting in Cheyenne, Jorgensen said he wants a better process for considering policies like the one Gray introduced. He also said the citizenship verification proposal “indicates to me a gross misunderstanding of our communities,” which are made up of citizens and immigrants, including many with papers.

”For us to ignore that, I think it’s really detrimental to our economy,” Jorgensen said, adding “It’s election season. People are trying to get headlines.”

This story was published on April 8, 2026.