HUD Finds Biden Admin Gave Out Billions In Housing Aid To Dead And Ineligible Tenants

A newly released report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that billions of taxpayer dollars were routed to ineligible recipients — including deceased individuals — through federal rental assistance programs during the Biden administration.

HUD’s internal review flagged approximately $5.8 billion in rental assistance payments made in fiscal year 2024 as “questionable” out of nearly $50 billion distributed nationwide. The funds went to more than 200,000 tenants whose eligibility could not be verified or appeared to violate program rules, including tens of thousands of individuals listed as deceased and thousands of possible 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.

Of the 8.8 million tenant records analyzed, roughly 200,000 could not be confirmed as U.S. citizens or as having an eligible non-citizen status. The agency also identified approximately 30,054 deceased individuals actively enrolled in a rental assistance program at the time of the analysis or who had received assistance after they died.

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 another $16 billion on Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA). The audit found that $1.5 billion in TBRA payments and approximately $4.3 billion of PBRA payments were associated with eligibility issues.

HUD officials said the questionable 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