{"id":33760,"date":"2025-02-19T21:06:47","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T21:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/hud-offices-became-as-vacant-as-a-spirit-halloween-store-under-biden-admin-sources\/"},"modified":"2025-02-19T21:06:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T21:06:47","slug":"hud-offices-became-as-vacant-as-a-spirit-halloween-store-under-biden-admin-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/hud-offices-became-as-vacant-as-a-spirit-halloween-store-under-biden-admin-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"HUD offices became as vacant as a \u2018Spirit Halloween\u2019 store under Biden: admin sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIRST ON FOX: <\/strong>The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) headquarters in Washington, D.C., is among the federal buildings that turned desolate like an off-season “Spirit Halloween” store as employees worked from home under the Biden administration and left offices relatively untouched since the first Trump administration<\/a>, Fox News Digital has learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For four years, the American people witnessed their government buildings transform overnight into massive, taxpayer-funded \u2018Spirit Halloween\u2019 stores,” a senior Trump administration official told Fox News Digital Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spirit Halloween costume stores occupy vacant storefronts in strip malls and shopping centers in the lead up to Halloween, but typically sit empty the rest of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital learned that HUD offices are equipped to accommodate a maximum of 6,015 people, but that the number of desks and offices set up at HUD’s headquarters<\/a>, the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, sits at 3,002, according to HUD data provided to Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The average number of people who actually worked out of the building during 2023 and 2024, when President Joe Biden<\/a> was in office, was 705, according to data provided to Fox News Digital. \u00a0<\/p>\n

TOP TRUMP AGENCY RECOVERS EYE-POPPING SUM AFTER LAUNCHING DOGE TASK FORCE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Costs for operating the 10-story building \u2013 which is styled in the popular minimalist Brutalist architecture of the 1950s \u2013 also come with lofty price tags. Fiscal year 2024 cost taxpayers <\/strong>$111,978,115 in combined rent and operating costs for the Weaver building, Fox Digital learned.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital obtained a photo taken in the HUD office in 2025 that shows an employee’s business card tacked onto a white board. Administration officials confirmed to Fox Digital that the card was placed on the white board at the end of Trump’s first administration<\/a>, and apparently remained untouched and in the same place until officials under the second Trump administration spotted it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is why President Trump has been vocal about getting employees to return to work in the office on behalf of the American people,” the senior administration official told Fox News Digital. “They deserve better \u2013 eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse was a cornerstone of the president’s campaign and is a defining feature of President Trump’s first 100 days.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scott Turner, who was confirmed as the nation’s 19th HUD secretary earlier in February, added in a comment to Fox News Digital that “the four-year vacation” under the Biden administration “is over.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

EXPERT REVEALS MASSIVE LEVELS OF WASTE DOGE CAN SLASH FROM ENTITLEMENTS, PET PROJECTS: ‘A LOT OF FAT’<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“This is a huge disservice to the American people and a massive waste of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Let me be clear \u2013 the four year vacation is over,” Turner told Fox Digital. “I\u2019ve been on many teams in my career, and I know from experience that in-person teamwork ensures accountability and fosters an environment of collaboration, creativity and communication. At HUD, we\u2019re getting back to work for the American people.”<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump<\/a> signed a memo on his first day back in the Oval Office ordering agency heads to terminate remote work arrangements that had been ongoing since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. \u00a0<\/p>\n

TRUMP’S PICK AS HUD SECRETARY, A FORMER NFL PLAYER, SAYS HE WANTS TO HELP AMERICANS GET OFF GOVERNMENT AID<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“Following the Presidential Memorandum Return to In-Person Work dated January 20, 2025, the department initial notice was sent to all HUD employees on Friday, January 24, outlining HUD\u2019s phased approach to return to in-person work and announcing the dates for Phases 1 and 2,” an administration official told Fox News Digital of the HUD working requirements. “Phase 1 has already been implemented, and HUD anticipates that this timeline will result in over 88% of the entire HUD workforce reporting to the office full-time by February 24, 2025.” \u00a0<\/p>\n

Turner was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 5, announcing just days later that he launched a new Department of Government Efficiency<\/u><\/a> (DOGE) task force of HUD employees to weed out “waste, fraud and abuse” at the agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DOGE, which is led by Elon Musk, additionally reported in February that it had identified $1.9 billion in misplaced HUD funds and worked with Turner to release the funds to the U.S. Treasury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“HUD will be detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent to serve rural, tribal and urban communities,” Turner said Thursday. “Thanks to President Trump\u2019s leadership, we are no longer in a business-as-usual posture and the DOGE task force will play a critical role in helping to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and ultimately better serve the American people. We have already identified over\u00a0$260 million in savings and we have more to accomplish.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIRST ON FOX: The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) headquarters in Washington, D.C., is among the federal buildings that turned desolate like an off-season “Spirit Halloween” store as employees worked from home under the Biden administration and left offices relatively untouched since the first Trump administration, Fox News Digital has learned.\u00a0 “For four years, the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}