The New York Post reports that a recent HUD audit flagged more than $5 billion in “questionable” rental assistance payments during the final year of the Biden administration. The findings include payments tied to roughly 30,000 deceased tenants and thousands of potential non-citizens. HUD says it will contact public housing authorities and other entities to verify the issues and may pause or revoke funding; criminal referrals could follow if warranted.
According to HUD’s 183-page report, $5.8 billion in potentially improper payments were identified out of nearly $50 billion in total federal rental assistance disbursed in fiscal year 2024 to public housing authorities, contractors, landlords, and other non-federal entities. Officials said a large share of the suspicious payments went to New York, California, and Washington, DC, and that payments to deceased recipients occurred in every state. In a statement, HUD Secretary Scott Turner criticized the Biden administration’s financial controls, saying they allowed billions in potential improper payments.
Read the New York Post story: https://nypost.com/2025/12/30/us-news/hud-spent-5b-in-questionable-rental-assistance-under-biden-including-dead-tenants/ Read HUD’s media release: https://www.hud.gov/news/hud-no-25-152 Read HUD’s report: https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/CFO/documents/afr2025.pdf