So far, little fraud evident in rental assistance programs

By ADAM BEAM and MICHAEL CASEY
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — After being victimized by massive unemployment fraud, housing officials in California and other states are reporting few fraudulent applications in their rental assistance programs. The federal government has poured trillions of dollars into states during the pandemic. For unemployment benefits, states saw massive amounts of fraud as they rushed to get the money approved quickly. But in California, state officials say they have identified just 1,800 fraudulent rental assistance applications out of nearly 500,000. Utah says only about 1% of it’s applications have been fraudulent, while New York reported an even lower percentage.