Unprecedented: Department of Human Services shuts down Housing Stabilization Services program

If there's anything that's indisputable, it's that the bureaucrats working to prevent Medicaid fraud in "Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program" didn't detect "several organizations suspected of participating in a 'massive scheme to defraud' Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program, a program administered by DHS but funded by Medicaid."

That's a First

President Reagan once said that the closest thing we'll see to immortality here on earth is a government program. Without question, President Reagan is celebrating somewhere at this news. According to this report, "DHS Temporary Commissioner Shireen Gandhi announced that her agency will be terminating the HSS program entirely. In a letter sent to federal authorities, Gandhi requested assistance in ending the program."

I didn't think I'd live long enough to see this day. Then again, "With God, all things are possible." Seriously, though, it's sad and infuriating that Walz's bureaucrats screwed this up so badly that the HSS had to be terminated. Think of the people HSS was supposed to serve that got promised things but didn't get the assistance.

This is KARE11's reporting on HSS fraud and shutting down HSS:

This is KSTP's reporting:

WOW! KSTP's Ryan Raiche emphatically stated that "federal investigators believe that the majority of the program is fraud. Mr. Raiche reported something stunning in the search warrant. It said "the state originally estimated that the housing stabilization program would only cost approximately $2,600,000 per year. In FY2024, the HSS expenditure exceeded $104,000,000. That's a 4000% increase oer the DFL's original estimated price tag.

The deeper Minnesotans dig into this program, the more it looks like it was run by grifters. When federal investigators tell reporters that they think that more than 50% of the program is fraud, it's time to shut things down. Further, when DFL legislators say that they didn't haave the right controls, that's a total cop-out. These legislators aren't potted plants. Minnesotans expect their representatives and senators to fix problems quickly when they spot a problem. The DFL didn't do that.

This says everything:

"DHS is rooting out fraud wherever we find it. We cannot allow one more cent of taxpayer money going out the door to providers who claim to serve Minnesotans in need of stable housing while lining their pockets for personal gain," said DHS Temporary Commissioner Shireen Gandhi. "As I made clear in my letter to CMS, our own data analysis has shown that this program does not have the necessary controls to stop bad actors, and we are urging CMS to approve our request to end this program as swiftly as possible."

What bothers me the most is that there are vulnerable people who got promised help to get their lives straightened out but who got left high and dry by these grifters. There's a special place in hell for the perpetrators of this fraud. May these grifters rot in hell.