The Trump administration is sending federal housing officials to Minnesota to investigate whether federally funded housing and social services programs are being properly administered, the Washington Examiner reported Monday.
The deployment of Department of Housing and Urban Development staff to Minneapolis and St. Paul comes amid the widespread fraud in state welfare programs in Somali communities.
HUD officials told the Examiner the move is meant to put Minnesota "on notice" that the federal government is taking enforcement and fiscal oversight seriously following rampant fraud.
In addition to on-the-ground reviews, HUD's Washington headquarters will analyze data from Minnesota's public housing authorities to ensure federal housing programs are not being exploited, according to the report.
The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority spends about $108 million annually on housing choice vouchers and public housing, while St. Paul's authority spends roughly $46 million.
The federal response follows revelations that as much as $1 billion in taxpayer funds may have been siphoned from Minnesota's social services programs through a series of fraud schemes, federal officials and prosecutors say.
Much of the scrutiny has focused on several high-profile cases, including the Feeding Our Future scandal, in which a nonprofit allegedly claimed hundreds of millions of dollars for meals it said were provided to children during the COVID-19 pandemic but were never delivered.
Other cases involve inflated billing in Minnesota's autism care system and fraud tied to Housing Stabilization Services, a Medicaid-funded program intended to help seniors and people with disabilities secure housing.
Those investigations have already led to federal indictments, convictions, and ongoing probes by the Justice Department and Treasury Department. There have been roughly 60 convictions so far with dozens more charges and guilty pleas pending.
The Treasury Department has stepped up its own efforts, including examining whether fraud proceeds were sent overseas, and has announced plans to tighten reporting requirements for money-transfer businesses.
President Donald Trump and his administration have pointed to the Minnesota cases as evidence of systemic failures in state oversight, using the scandal to push for tougher enforcement and accountability in federal assistance programs.
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