Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner found more than $5 billion in taxpayer funds that went to “questionable” rental assistance recipients during the final year of the Biden administration. About 30,000 “deceased tenants” and “thousands” of potential non-citizens were the lucky recipients of funds for housing.
HUD officials said a “large concentration” of the suspicious payments went to New York, California, and Washington, DC, with dead recipients getting at least some funds in all 50 states.
Federal officials call it the widespread abuse of taxpayers’ dollars under the Biden administration.
“A massive abuse of taxpayer dollars not only occurred under President [Joe] 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.
“HUD will continue investigating the shocking results and will take appropriate action to hold bad actors accountable. Additionally, the Department is advancing efforts made under President Trump’s first administration to strengthen program integrity and ensure taxpayer-funded assistance serves the vulnerable communities it was intended for.”
About 11% of taxpayer dollars from HUD went to more than 200,000 possibly ineligible tenants:
- 29,715 (around 14%) were dead,
- 9,472 (4%) were non-citizens and
- 165,393 (82%) were receiving sums that exceeded the threshold for assistance in their geographic region, particularly in New Orleans and other large metro areas.
HUD officials faulted the Biden administration for a directive “to push funding out the door with minimal oversight” as well as rent assistance programs placing “substantial trust and responsibility in these non-federal entities … to accurately assess tenant eligibility.”
This money is supposed to provide housing to poor people who cannot afford shelter. Housing assistance has an enormous budget and it has long been a source of waste and fraud.
🚨 BREAKING: In a JAW-DROPPING revelation, HUD Sec. Scott Turner just found over $5 BILLION in potential FRAUDULENT payments for thousands of non-citizens and deceased people
Up to 30,000 THOUSAND of them.
A “large concentration” of these rental assistance payments went to BLUE… pic.twitter.com/swdWdrbLvq
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 30, 2025
The ‘dead community’ is a vital Democratic constituency; how can they vote without an address in the district!