WASHINGTON — A US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report found more than $5 billion in taxpayer funds went to “questionable” rental assistance recipients during the final year of the Biden administration — including to around 30,000 “deceased tenants” and “thousands” of potential non-citizens, The Post can reveal.
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 — in what federal officials are calling widespread abuse of taxpayers’ dollars under the Biden administration.
“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.
“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.”
HUD’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFC) uncovered $5.8 billion of the “questionable” payments out of nearly $50 billion in total federal rental assistance to public housing authorities, contractors, landlords and other non-federal entities in fiscal year 2024, the 183-page report disclosed.
The around 11% of taxpayer dollars from HUD went to more than 200,000 possibly ineligible tenants — of which 29,715 were dead, 9,472 were non-citizens and 165,393 were receiving sums that exceeded the threshold for assistance in their geographic region, particularly in New Orleans and other large metro areas.
The HUD programs are designed to help low-income residents who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford shelter — and the possible grift means those truly in need could have been left out in the cold.
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.”
Now, HUD will have to reach out to the public housing authorities and other entities to confirm the extent of the fraud — and either pause or revoke funding. Officials will also make criminal referrals when warranted.
“HUD is implementing processes and procedures to revoke or pause funding as part of its efforts to hold bad actors accountable,” one official said. “Additionally, the Department could make criminal referrals and exercise other enforcement actions once it has confirmed fraud occurred.”
Between October 2023 and September 2024, $33 billion was spent on Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) for more than 4 million households and $16 billion was spent on Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) — all of which the audit reviewed.
The more than 200,000 tenants were flagged for eligibility issues as part of the $1.5 billion in TBRA payments from HUD, while roughly $4.3 billion — or 26.4% — of all PBRA payments also had eligibility issues.
In partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, HUD identified “thousands” of non-citizens were also receiving some form of Section 8 or 9 rental assistance — despite not being eligible.
HUD’s financial report was aimed at following through on President Trump’s commitments to increasing “accountability and transparency” as well as protecting “taxpayer funds against waste, fraud and abuse.”
The department’s Office of Inspector General previously audited HUD’s fraud risk management after an infusion of billions of dollars for housing from Biden’s 2021 American Rescue Plan Act and President Trump’s 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
That October 2022 audit determined that HUD “needed significant improvement” in its antifraud efforts and that both PBRA and TBRA officials were not assessing risks at all.
HUD also “did not have a clear process in place for PHAs [Public Housing Authorities], PBCAs [Performance Based Contract Administrators], and grantees to report instances of known or suspected fraud to HUD and HUD’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).”
By February 2024, midway through the 2024 fiscal year, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York ended up charging 70 current and former employees of the New York City Housing Authority — the largest in the country — for taking cash kickbacks from contractors.
US Attorney Damian Williams declared the end of the decade-long scheme, comprising as much as $2 million in corrupt payments and $13 million in no-bid contracts, was “the largest single-day bribery takedown in the history of the Justice Department.”
NYCHA provides rental assistance to more than half-a-million New Yorkers and took $3.86 billion in HUD funding in 2023, per a March 2025 HUD OIG audit, which found federal funds going to it were at “greater risk of fraud” due to a lack of safeguards and guidance.
“NYCHA partners with law enforcement to root out the corruption that directly led to the 2024 arrests,” a spokesperson for the housing authority said in a statement.
“Each of the 70 cases brought by DOI has led to a conviction, and all of the defendants have separated from employment. NYCHA has implemented all recommendations, while rebuilding its operations and procurement processes.”
Former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge and her deputy secretary Adrianne Todman did not respond to a request for comment.
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