HUD: Biden Admin Handed Out Billions to Dead, Ineligible Tenants

A newly released internal report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development has uncovered billions of dollars in federal rental assistance payments that were improperly distributed during the Biden administration, including funds sent to ineligible recipients, deceased individuals, and tenants whose legal status could not be verified.

According to HUD’s review, roughly $5.8 billion in rental assistance payments issued during fiscal year 2024 were flagged as “questionable” out of nearly $50 billion distributed nationwide. The payments were tied to more than 200,000 tenants whose eligibility could not be confirmed or who appeared to violate basic program requirements.

The findings include tens of thousands of individuals listed as deceased and thousands of recipients who may not be U.S. citizens or otherwise eligible non-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.

HUD analyzed 8.8 million tenant records and found that approximately 200,000 recipients could not be verified as U.S. citizens or as having eligible non-citizen status. The audit also identified 30,054 deceased individuals who were either actively enrolled in rental assistance programs or continued receiving benefits after death.

Between October 2023 and September 2024, HUD spent about $33 billion on Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA), which serves more than four million households, and another $16 billion on Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA). The review found that roughly $1.5 billion in TBRA payments and $4.3 billion in PBRA payments were associated with eligibility problems.

HUD officials said the improper payments were spread across all 50 states, with particularly high concentrations in New York, California, and Washington, D.C., according to the New York Post. The findings were detailed in a 183-page fiscal year 2025 financial report produced by HUD’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer.

Officials noted that the report bolsters President Donald J. Trump’s second-term push to restore transparency and accountability in federal spending and to aggressively root out waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funds.

HUD has begun contacting local housing authorities to determine the scope of wrongdoing. In cases where fraud is confirmed, the agency plans to make criminal referrals, the outlet reported.

“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.”

The revelations come amid a widening fraud scandal in Minnesota, where federal prosecutors allege that as much as half of the roughly $18 billion spent on Medicaid programs since 2018 may have been siphoned off by fraudsters. Investigations into billions of dollars in stolen COVID-era federal funds have intensified pressure on Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, with growing calls for his resignation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Monday that the Department of Justice is working alongside the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and HUD to investigate the Minnesota fraud allegations.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor has launched a targeted review of Minnesota’s unemployment insurance program after reports suggested similar vulnerabilities. In a letter to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, the agency said reports of fraud in Medicaid-funded services could signal abuse within the unemployment system as well.

“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.

Chavez-DeRemer also told Fox Business last month that her department was dispatching an unemployment insurance “strike team” to Minnesota as part of the expanding investigation.