Audit reveals city paid $11.8 million in housing subsidies to dead people
BY Erin Einhorn
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Monday, September 26th 2011, 4:00 AM
New York City Controller John Liu discovered the city was paying millions in rent benefits to approximately 4,000 dead people.
Even the dead are scamming the city.
A shocking new audit from city Controller John Liu discovered that city bureaucrats paid out $11.8 million in rent subsidies in recent years to nearly 4,000 people too dead to enjoy them.
Instead, their landlords or relatives cashed in.
"There's no excuse for losing this much money - management lapse, willful fraud or otherwise," Liu said in a statement.
His office turned its findings over to Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. to determine if any crimes were committed.
City officials say they've already recouped $3.3 million of the posthumous profit - and vowed to collect the rest as soon as possible.
They say they had spotted some of the errors even before Liu flagged the screwups - and began implementing safeguards to make sure the dead are never again on the city dole.
"For more than a year and a half, Finance has been engaged in a comprehensive effort to overhaul the entire ... process," said Owen Stone, a spokesman for the city Finance Department.
The problem emerged from a popular program called the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption Program, which helps low-income elderly tenants pay their rents.
Tenants 62 or older who live in rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartments and make less than $29,000 a year can sign up for the benefit.
It essentially freezes their rents and gives their landlords a tax break to cover the lost income.
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_.....e.html#ixzz1Z3uJMlhn
Logged
