Opinion Page: Homeless Services corruption is just a taste of NYC’s nonprofit scams

 

From the NY Post: (Westhab is a Westchester County 501(c)(3))

In yet another sign of the potential for corruption in the $2.4 billion New York City spends each year on housing the homeless, meet Jocelyn Carter.  Placed in a top Homeless Services job in the de Blasio years, Carter seems in violation of the city’s conflicts of interest law. Her sister’s firm has landed 17 contracts with the agency valued at $1.7 billion, per the City Comptroller’s Office.

The sister, Valerie Smith, is vice president of New York City housing programs for Yonkers-based Westhab Inc., which runs homeless shelters in the city. Even if she got the job after Carter’s promotion, alarms should’ve gone off.  But lots of dubiousness ensued as city homeless spending ballooned in the de Blasio years under Commissioner Steven Banks, opening the door to crooked social service and shelter operators.

The bribery arrest of the CEO of the city’s largest shelter provider was one clue; the pals-on-the-payroll scandal at another “nonprofit,” another. The Post identified dozens of suspect arrangements.

, , , , 

 

darryll jones