Billions in Biden Rent Aid Went to Dead Tenants and Non-Citizens, HUD Claims

Biden Admin Blamed for Weak Oversight

The federal government spent billions of dollars on rental assistance for people who should never have received it.

A new report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that during fiscal year 2024, questionable payments went to more than 30,000 deceased tenants and thousands of potential non-citizens.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner is pointing the finger at the previous administration, and the numbers explain why this is about to get very messy.

$5.8 Billion Out of $50 Billion Flagged

HUD distributed nearly $50 billion in federal rental assistance during fiscal year 2024, which ran from October 2023 through September 2024.

Of that total, the agency flagged $5.8 billion as questionable.

That means roughly 12% of all rental assistance payments went to recipients whose eligibility could not be verified or appeared to violate program rules.

The 192-page financial report, dated December 18, 2025, details how HUD discovered the problems through its own internal review.

30,054 Dead People on the Rolls

HUD ran an automated check comparing its records against a Treasury Department database. The results were not subtle.

The system identified 30,054 deceased tenants who were either still actively enrolled in rental assistance programs or had received payments after they died.

Every single state had at least some payments going to dead recipients. The check was straightforward, but nobody had apparently run it with any regularity before.

Thousands of Non-Citizens Also Flagged

Working with the Department of Homeland Security, HUD identified thousands of potential non-citizens receiving Section 8 or Section 9 rental assistance.

Federal law requires recipients to be U.S. citizens or legal immigrants with eligible status.

Mixed-status families can receive reduced benefits, but unauthorized immigrants are not supposed to receive any assistance at all.

The report did not specify exactly how many non-citizens were flagged, only that the number reached into the thousands.

New York and California Got Most

HUD officials told reporters that the largest concentration of suspicious payments went to New York, California, and Washington, DC.

These three areas receive massive amounts of federal housing assistance due to their high populations and expensive rental markets.

New York City alone houses more than half a million people through the New York City Housing Authority, which took in $3. 86 billion from HUD in 2023.

The pattern of problems was national, but the money concentrated in familiar places.

Two Programs Cover 4 Million Households

The audit reviewed two main programs.

Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, which includes Section 8 vouchers, received $33 billion and served more than 4 million households.

This program lets recipients choose their own housing and take the voucher with them if they move.

Project-Based Rental Assistance received $16 billion and ties the subsidy to specific buildings rather than individual tenants.

The audit found $1.5 billion in questionable TBRA payments and $4. 3 billion in questionable PBRA payments.

Turner Blames Push for Speed

HUD Secretary Scott Turner did not mince words about who he thinks is responsible.

He accused the Biden administration of issuing directives to push funding out the door with minimal oversight.

The report itself notes that HUD placed substantial trust in the housing authorities and contractors receiving the funds, without giving the department tools to verify whether those entities were enforcing the rules.

Turner called it a massive abuse of taxpayer dollars that was effectively incentivized by weak controls.

No System Existed to Report Fraud

One of the more striking findings was that HUD had no clear process for public housing authorities, contractors, or grant recipients to report suspected fraud.

If a local housing authority noticed something wrong, there was no established channel to flag the problem for HUD or its inspector general.

That gap meant problems could persist without anyone at the federal level knowing about them until an audit caught the pattern years later.

NYCHA Scandal Showed the Cracks

The New York City Housing Authority provided a preview of how bad things could get.

In February 2024, federal prosecutors charged 70 current and former NYCHA employees with bribery and extortion.

Investigators found that superintendents and assistant superintendents had been demanding cash kickbacks from contractors in exchange for awarding repair contracts.

The scheme ran for about a decade and affected nearly 100 of the authority’s 320 developments across all five boroughs.

All 70 NYCHA Workers Convicted

By November 2025, every single one of the 70 employees charged in the NYCHA case had either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.

Prosecutors called it the largest single-day bribery takedown in Justice Department history. The defendants collectively accepted more than $2.1 million in bribes in exchange for steering over $15 million in contracts.

They were ordered to pay back the bribe money and forfeit an additional $2 million in criminal proceeds. Sentences ranged up to 48 months in prison.

Criminal Referrals May Be Coming

HUD says it is not finished. The agency is implementing procedures to revoke or pause funding for entities involved in the questionable payments.

Officials will also make criminal referrals once they confirm where actual fraud occurred, as opposed to administrative errors or outdated records.

The distinction matters because some deceased recipient cases could simply be paperwork that was never updated after a death, while others could involve deliberate schemes to collect benefits fraudulently.

Turner Vows to Clean House

Scott Turner took over HUD in February 2025 after the Senate confirmed him by a 55-44 vote.

The former NFL cornerback and Texas state legislator had previously run the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during the first Trump administration.

He has made program integrity a centerpiece of his tenure, including cutting off FHA-insured mortgages for undocumented immigrants and launching a hotline to report illegal residents in HUD housing.

The rental assistance findings give him ammunition to push for deeper changes. Whether the cleanup uncovers more problems or fewer remains to be seen.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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