WASHINGTON — The Department of Housing and Urban Development likely distributed more than $84 million in ineligible housing assistance to Minnesota during President Joe Biden’s final year in office, including payments to more than 500 people who were already deceased, according to officials and documents reviewed by The Post.
HUD has been reviewing billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded housing aid issued under the Biden administration. Its latest review identified $84.6 million in potentially improper payments made to Minnesota in fiscal year 2024.
Among those payments was as much as $496,000 sent to 509 deceased tenants. Another $246,000 reportedly went to 20 individuals whose Social Security numbers could not be verified, suggesting they were likely non-citizens.
“Biden’s HUD failed the people of Minnesota — paying dead people while vulnerable families were left behind,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said.
“This gross level of mismanagement and failure to safeguard American taxpayer dollars is unacceptable. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are holding bad actors accountable and will continue to root out rampant fraud in Minnesota and across the country,” Turner added.
The preliminary audit found the questionable funding was distributed across 61 housing authorities statewide. Officials noted the review could not definitively confirm fraud in every case.
The findings come as Minnesota faces growing scrutiny over alleged large-scale fraud totaling billions of dollars during Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s tenure. Walz withdrew his bid for a third term last week amid the controversy.
Nationally, HUD flagged $5.8 billion in “questionable” rental assistance payments, including funds issued to roughly 30,000 deceased tenants and thousands of possible non-citizens, The Post previously reported.
About 11% of the flagged funding went to more than 200,000 potentially ineligible tenants. Of those, 29,715 were identified as possibly deceased, 9,472 as possible non-citizens and 165,393 as recipients whose assistance exceeded eligibility thresholds for their geographic areas.
A large share of the questionable payments went to housing authorities in New York, California and Washington, D.C.
Deceased recipients were identified in all 50 states, prompting Turner to call the situation a “massive abuse of taxpayer dollars.”
Overall, $49 billion in rental assistance was distributed to more than 4 million households nationwide, including $33 billion through HUD’s Tenant-Based Rental Assistance program and another $16 billion through Project-Based Rental Assistance.
Previous audits by HUD’s Office of Inspector General criticized both the department and state agencies for lacking strong antifraud safeguards. Investigators also faulted PBRA and TBRA officials for failing to adequately assess fraud risks, citing the absence of a clear process for reporting suspected misuse of funds.
The Office of the HUD Chief Financial Officer oversaw the review, which covered payments made during fiscal year 2024, from Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2024.
Former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge and Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman did not respond to prior requests for comment. Representatives for the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency also did not immediately respond.
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