Billion-Dollar Rent Assistance Fraud Exposed by Former HUD Official

A recent HUD report has flagged potential fraud in federal rent assistance programs, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson warned Wednesday.

“The tentacles of the fraud are very deep,” Carson said on a recent interview, adding that he was “alarmed at how much fraud and misuse of funding there was” during his tenure as HUD secretary under President Donald Trump.

The report found that approximately 30,000 deceased individuals and thousands of noncitizens received federal housing funds under the Biden administration, with alleged improper payments totaling billions of dollars. Carson noted that his administration implemented rigorous financial oversight measures during the Trump era, which significantly reduced fraud complaints at HUD. “Before the Trump administration, there were all these allegations about fraud going on at HUD,” he said. “It took about a year and a half before you stopped hearing that.”

Carson criticized the Biden administration for relaxing financial controls: “It didn’t take very long for the Biden administration to relax those controls,” he stated. “And this is what happens. It happens in HUD. It happens in lots of other agencies across government.”

The former official compared efforts to curb improper spending to turning a large ship. “It’s sort of like a cruise ship. You’ve got to turn it around,” he explained. “It takes a while to turn that thing around.”

Carson also highlighted concerns about a Minnesota welfare fraud scandal, where at least 50 daycare and learning centers received funds without any children enrolled: “You have to be really gullible to believe that [the lack of children] is a coincidence,” he said.