U.S. Virgin Islands housing authority funding suspended amid corruption probe

The U.S. government has suspended funding for the U.S. Virgin Islands' housing authority, citing widespread corruption and mismanagement of disaster recovery funds. U.S. Housing Secretary Scott Turner announced the suspension Monday, stating that nine years after receiving $1.9 billion for hurricane recovery, the territory has spent less than a third of the funds.

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This failure has, to date, deprived Virgin Islanders of roughly $1.3 billion worth of assistance that Congress intended them to have.

A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) investigation revealed "widespread financial mismanagement, inadequate fraud controls, false certifications and improper payments." The investigation is ongoing, but HUD's findings indicate that roughly $1.3 billion in intended assistance has not reached Virgin Islanders.

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kickbacks over helping families recover from disasters.

Turner accused officials of prioritizing "kickbacks over helping families recover from disasters." The U.S. Virgin Islands was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, and recovery efforts have been severely hampered. HUD's letter to the housing authority called its stewardship of taxpayer funds "abysmal."

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record demonstrates that it is an abysmal steward of taxpayer funds.

The authority has completed only two of 95 planned single-family rental rehabilitation projects and none of the 329 single and multifamily housing projects. Furthermore, only 2% of its electrical grid recovery funding had been spent as of May. Meanwhile, more than half of the grant funds were allocated to administrative costs. The authority is also accused of seeking $6.2 million already paid by FEMA. The former chief operating officer, who oversaw disaster recovery, is in federal prison for fraud and money laundering, having inflated a lumber contract and taken a kickback.

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and let the lumber rot in the sun, rendering it useless, a waste of taxpayer funds.