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A newly released report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that billions of dollars in federal rental assistance funds were improperly distributed to ineligible recipients, including deceased individuals, during the Biden administration.
HUD’s internal review identified approximately $5.8 billion in rental assistance payments made during fiscal year 2024 as “questionable.” This amount is part of nearly $50 billion distributed nationwide. The funds were allocated to over 200,000 tenants whose eligibility could not be verified or who seemed to violate program rules.
It includes tens of thousands of individuals listed as deceased and thousands who may not be U.S. citizens.
“A massive abuse of taxpayer dollars not only occurred under President Biden’s watch, but was effectively incentivized by his administration’s failure to implement strong financial controls resulting in billions worth of potential improper payments,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement to the New York Post.
Of the 8.8 million tenant records analyzed, approximately 200,000 could not be confirmed as U.S. citizens or as having eligible non-citizen status. The agency also identified around 30,054 deceased individuals who were actively enrolled in a rental assistance program at the time of the analysis or who had received assistance after their death.
Between October 2023 and September 2024, HUD spent about $33 billion on Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA), which supports more than four million households, and an additional $16 billion on Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA). The audit revealed that $1.5 billion in TBRA payments and approximately $4.3 billion in PBRA payments were linked to eligibility issues.
HUD officials stated that the questionable payments were distributed across all 50 states, with particularly high concentrations found in New York, California, and Washington, D.C., according to the New York Post. These findings were detailed in a 183-page fiscal year 2025 agency financial report prepared by HUD’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
Officials stated that the report supports President Donald Trump’s efforts to ensure transparency and accountability in federal spending, particularly in preventing waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars, according to the outlet.
HUD officials said the agency now plans to reach out to housing authorities to assess the extent of the fraud. In cases where wrongdoing is confirmed, HUD will make criminal referrals, as reported by the outlet.
“30,000 dead people receiving housing isn’t an accident — it was systematic fraud by Biden and the left,” Turner wrote on X Tuesday. “HUD will hold those who defrauded the American taxpayers accountable.”
30,000 dead people receiving housing isn’t an accident — it was systematic fraud by Biden and the left.
HUD will hold those who defrauded the American taxpayers accountable.https://t.co/GJW5IZEXER
— Scott Turner (@SecretaryTurner) December 30, 2025
The findings emerge amid a broader fraud scandal in Minnesota, where federal prosecutors allege that as much as half of the approximately $18 billion the state has spent on Medicaid programs since 2018 may have been diverted by fraudsters, many of whom are of Somali descent. Ongoing investigations and prosecutions related to billions of dollars in stolen COVID-era federal funds have also intensified calls for Democratic Governor Tim Walz to resign.
The Department of Justice is collaborating with other federal agencies, including the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and HUD, to investigate the fraud affecting the state, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Monday.
Also, the U.S. Department of Labor announced plans for a targeted review of Minnesota’s unemployment insurance program amid increased scrutiny of fraud in the state’s human services programs, an issue that has gained political attention at the national level.
In a letter to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the department said recent news reports detailing fraud in Medicaid-funded human services programs could indicate potential fraud or abuse within the state’s unemployment benefits system.
“If there has been any related abuse of our (unemployment insurance) systems, it will not be tolerated, and I trust our specialized strike team to get to the bottom of this and report their findings directly to me,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a press release, per the Minnesota Reformer.
Also, Chavez-DeRemer told Fox Business last month that her agency was sending an unemployment insurance ‘strike team’ to Minnesota to widen the fraud probe.
