Postgraduate Center for Mental Health has $130 million in two cash reserves and steady funding from the state, but conditions inside the apartments it rents for low-income tenants continue to deteriorate. The organization says it is forced to rent substandard units because state contracts are too low to cover better housing.
Behind the unlocked front door to a Fordham Heights apartment building, Choice Scott and her neighbors faced one hazard after another.
Scott, a mother of two, went seven months without cooking gas before it was restored in January. When City Limits visited the building on East 182nd Street that month, she and three neighbors showed off the hot plates with electric burners that management had given them the previous summer. She had recently won a court case forcing the property owner to turn the gas back on and to address a mouse and roach infestation.
On Jan. 12, her 7-year-old son was scalded by steam spraying from a bedroom radiator valve. “This is clearly a hazard in the home,” a Harlem Hospital physician wrote in a letter to the landlord, a limited liability corporation tied to property owner Jonathan Malinas. “I strongly recommend that this be addressed urgently by the landlord to prevent further injury to the children in the home.”
Scott and her children finally moved out last month, but contend with another lingering problem: Her 2-year-old daughter has had multiple blood tests that show lead levels of 4 micrograms per deciliter—higher than the threshold considered safe for children by the city and federal government. City inspectors have opened an investigation, and while initial checks did not identify lead in the paint that flaked off the apartment’s walls, Scott worries the tests weren’t thorough enough.
“It’s like a slum,” Scott said. “And I didn’t feel safe.”
Some of the problems are familiar to low-income tenants across The Bronx, where low-cost housing crumbles and absentee owners with large portfolios neglect repairs. Yet in the case of Scott and at least three of her neighbors, there were supposed to be additional protections in place.
The apartment is rented by a nonprofit tasked with providing safe housing with social services to formerly homeless New Yorkers with mental illness. That nonprofit, Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, receives millions of dollars in contracts from New York’s Office of Mental Health (OMH) for its scattered-site program and has about $70 million in a rainy day fund. Its CEO, Dr. Jacob Barak, earns more than $913,000 a year to run an organization and related companies with various real estate holdings, mental health services and housing programs, tax filings show. OMH, meanwhile, oversees the 20,000 scattered-site supportive housing units statewide, including 16,000 in the five boroughs.
READ MORE: Dilapidated Apartments, Lousy Landlords Plague NYC’s Sprawling ‘Scattered-Site’ Supportive Housing Network
But as City Limits has previously reported, egregious, unsafe conditions plague New York City’s network of scattered-site supportive housing, where nonprofit providers with government contracts rent units in privately-owned buildings and sublease them to formerly homeless New Yorkers with mental illness, HIV/AIDS and other special needs.
Postgraduate Center is no exception.
Scott’s former apartment is one of around 540 units that Postgraduate Center leases for its scattered-site supportive housing program, with just over 440 funded by contracts from OMH. That makes Postgraduate the seventh-largest OMH-funded portfolio in New York City, according to data provided by the state in response to a Freedom of Information Law request.
City Limits identified 32 buildings where Postgraduate Center rents apartments, based on a review of lawsuits, housing court documents and interviews with five tenants. Nearly half—15 of the 32 buildings—are owned by people who have appeared on the public advocate’s annual Worst Landlords List. The 32 buildings accounted for 1,433 open housing code violations as of July 8, including 398 open Class C, or “immediately hazardous,” violations. Postgraduate Center rents only some of the apartments in those buildings, while the rest of the units are leased by individual tenants and, at times, other nonprofits.
Among the findings:
- Four buildings have open lead paint violations, according to HPD records (these did not include Scott’s building, which did not have unresolved lead paint violations.)
- Ten buildings with open violations for self-closing doors that failed to shut automatically—the problem that fueled a fatal fire in The Bronx earlier this year
- Five buildings owned by companies connected to Malinas, which account for 123 open HPD violations, including 41 at Scott’s former residence.
- Two buildings owned by Worst Landlord List mainstay Eleanor Patrick, including one on Chauncey Street in Brooklyn that accounts for 182 open violations—56 of them “immediately hazardous.”
- A building owned by Ved Parkash—once ranked by the public advocate as New York City’s very worst landlord—with apartments previously leased by the city for use as cluster site homeless shelter units
- An ongoing 2017 lawsuit filed by a tenant in a Bronx building who was struck by a chunk of bathroom ceiling and injured when he slipped on a floor flooded by an overhead leak. The tenant initially sued the property owner, a company connected to landlord David Tannenbaum, before adding Postgraduate as a defendant because he said they had a responsibility to fix the leaking ceiling. The lawsuit has pitted Postgraduate against the property owner to determine legal responsibility. The building was also formerly leased by the city for use as a cluster site shelter for homeless families.
In an interview, Postgraduate Center’s Deputy Vice President of Residential Operations, Christine Narine, said the organization has been renting most of its scattered-site units for several years—sometimes more than two decades—and cannot afford new one-bedrooms or studios because prices have risen beyond what OMH contracts can cover in most cases. Older OMH agreements give providers a lump sum of around $17,000 a year per apartment for rent and services. Those older contract rates do not rise, even as median rents across the city spike and the number of vacant low-cost apartments shrinks. Postgraduate Center officials said they have opted not to renew about 40 scattered-site contracts in the past.
“At the current reimbursement rate for the model, we can’t afford to de-lease apartments and rent new ones for our consumers,” Narine said.
Instead, Postgraduate, like other providers, has been bundling its contracts, renting two-bedroom units and placing its clients together, she said. Narine said the arrangements are “more financially viable but have their own sort of issues in terms of trying to put two individuals with their own disabilities into an apartment together who don’t know each other and have to share a living space.”
One Postgraduate Center client who asked to remain anonymous said she has lived in two scattered-site units where roommates assaulted her. The woman, 32, said she is poised to move into a one-bedroom on 233rd Street, but her eagerness was tempered by the conditions there: the complex has 124 open HPD violations, including 56 Class C penalties for roaches, mold and lead paint.
Another Postgraduate Center client, Charles Edwards, said the organization moved him from a one-bedroom on 231st Street to the same 182nd Street building as Scott after he let another person live with him. He said he worried about getting an unknown roommate but was preoccupied with more immediate concerns: the refrigerator and stove were broken.
READ MORE: ‘Bill of Rights’ Law for NYC Supportive Housing Tenants Went Into Effect, But Word Isn’t Getting Out
Providers have long advocated for more funding from the state and blame poor conditions on the low contract amounts they say force them to rent whatever they can find—including units owned by notoriously negligent landlords. The building on East 182nd Street, for example, appeared on then-Public Advocate Letitia James’ Worst Landlord List in 2015, but at least two nonprofit organizations currently lease units there. New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) sued Malinas and his limited liability corporation to compel them to make repairs in June. A judge set a court date for mid-August.
Attorneys representing Malinas in housing court declined to answer questions in March and again earlier this month. They hung up when City Limits attempted to call back Monday.
An OMH spokesperson defended the contract structure in a statement earlier this year, telling City Limits that “funding rental stipends and services out of the same pool of money allows providers to accommodate variations in tenant needs.” OMH also said it has no control over what units providers rent or from whom they rent them.
Above: Charles Edwards in the East 182nd Street building in February; the electric hot plate tenants were forced to use during the seven-month gas outage; the damaged floor in Edwards’ apartment. Photos by Adi Talwar.
Untouchable cash reserves
Faced with limited contracts, some nonprofit administrators say they use private fundraising dollars to cover a portion of the rent or pay for the services provided to their scattered-site clients.
Postgraduate Center is unable to do that because it does not raise money from private sources, said Barak, the CEO.
He said the organization cannot touch the $70 million it has stashed in a “rainy day fund” and $60 million in a state-controlled reserve, despite the crummy conditions in the apartments it rents. That money is obligated to Postgraduate’s real estate holdings, which include 16 congregate supportive housing sites with on-site social services, six other properties and two buildings in construction, Barak said.
“The fiduciary responsibility to manage this capital reserve and rainy day fund is purely for the buildings that we have developed and that we own for the long-standing,” Barak said. “We are not in a position to use this money to subsidize private, for-profit landlords.”
Postgraduate Center argued that they are actually pressed for cash: scattered-site tenants—who pay 30 percent of their income toward rent—owe more than $656,000 in arrears, while residents of its congregate supportive housing facilities owe $1.4 million more.
Nevertheless, the organization’s supportive housing contracts, along with Barak’s compensation, have attracted past scrutiny from state officials. In a 2017 audit of Postgraduate’s scattered-site contracts with OMH, inspectors from the state comptroller’s office found health and safety problems in nine of the 14 apartments they visited, including a bedbug infestation and damaged walls and ceilings. They also questioned Barak’s then-nearly $850,000 salary and flagged a bonus scheme that chiefly benefited PCMH executives. Top staff padded their pay with surplus funds that are supposed to be returned to the state, the inspectors found.
But a 2020 follow-up audit by the Comptroller’s office determined that Barak’s pay did not violate an executive order from Gov. Andrew Cuomo capping executive compensation from state contracts at $199,000. Gov. Kathy Hochul has since scrapped that order.
Barak’s salary has only increased since that audit, reaching $913,541 in the fiscal year ending in June 2020, including a $450,898 base salary, $250,000 bonus, $132,356 in deferred compensation and other benefits, according to the most recently available tax records published by ProPublica and GuideStar. In the past, Barak’s total pay has topped $1 million, as in the 2015 fiscal year when he made $847,334 in base salary and $166,321 in additional compensation, tax forms show.
An outside consultant hired to make salary recommendations said the real estate aspects of Barak’s job, combined with the social service mission, justify the pay.
“The agency continuously and increasingly each year looks less like a traditional services delivery ‘Not-For-Profit’ Agency and increasing (sic) finds its Core strategic activity found in the For Profit commercial real estate markets as it related to buying, construction, location and management of its real estate ventures,” the consultant wrote in 2014. The document was provided to City Limits by OMH in response to a records request.
In addition to Postgraduate Center, Barak runs an affiliated firm, Foundation Housing Managing Company, that finances real estate purchases and a management company, Corporation for Housing Care. The two related companies contribute half of Barak’s total compensation, while Postgraduate pays the other half.
“We have used our own funds to buy the land, to develop the buildings and that is part of the activities that the organization took to enhance the number of permanent units in New York City,” Barak said. “Currently, real estate is the primary activity as far as our generation of annual budget for the organization.”
Barak’s 2020 compensation package more than doubled that of the top executives at seven of the nine other scattered-site housing providers with more than 400 units in New York City. Only the head of St. Joseph’s Medical Center, a hospital that operates 736 OMH-funded supportive housing units, mostly in Staten Island, earned more: CEO Michael Spicer took in a combined $1.34 million, according to the health system’s 2019 Form 990. The former head of Institute for Community Living, which has 972 OMH-funded scattered-site units citywide, earned just over $662,000 in the fiscal year that ended in June 2020.
Postgraduate held nearly $5 million in investment funds based out of the Caribbean and Central America in 2020, tax documents show. The organization said the investments are managed by U.S.-based financial advisors.
Daniel Kurtz, a lawyer who specializes in nonprofits and once led the state Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, reviewed Postgraduate’s most recent available tax filing and said there did not appear to be anything illegal about the organization’s investments or executive pay.
Barak’s “compensation appears to be an outlier” but seems to follow the law, he said.
Still, salaries approaching $1 million at organizations serving poor New Yorkers tend to elicit backlash. On the other hand, the sector needs to attract talented managers who could earn far more in other industries, and nonprofit administrators who can effectively address New York City’s homeless and affordable housing crises are probably worth the money.
Officials from the state comptroller’s office and OMH said they would continue looking into Postgraduate Center’s scattered-site program.
In a statement, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said mental health services are at a “crisis point,” and urged OMH to better hold organizations that provide scattered-site supportive housing accountable.
“At Postgraduate we found red flags that have been allowed to fester because of lax oversight,” DiNapoli said. “New Yorkers are owed better care and greater accounting for the services they’re getting.”
In response to questions from City Limits, OMH said it will conduct an additional audit of business relationships between Postgraduate, its related companies and their state funding.
OMH previously reviewed Postgraduate’s finances in late-January 2020 and ordered the organization to revise staff training, apartment maintenance and tenant screening policies. In response, Postgraduate created a “corrective action plan,” which included quality control measures for mental health treatment delivery, case management and health assessments. The state agency also said it has clawed back $129,000 of nearly $700,000 in “inappropriate” expenses flagged by the comptroller’s office during its 2017 audit.
OMH has added language to Postgraduate Center’s program guidelines stating that the organization “bears primary responsibility for advocating for tenants and working with landlords to ensure that the residents’ apartments are safe and habitable, and that repairs are completed promptly.”
When asked about poor conditions in the scattered-site units, OMH spokesperson James Plastiras said Postgraduate Center, like all providers, is tasked with advocating for repairs and better conditions from property owners.
“OMH conducts reviews, issues findings, requires corrective action, and oversees more than 20,000 Supportive Housing beds,” said OMH spokesperson James Plastiras. “Providers are expected to similarly conduct visits, advocate to landlords on behalf of clients, and work with tenants to maintain safe housing and promote recovery.”
Stepping up for tenants
A commitment to better housing conditions is exactly what tenants in Postgraduate Center units—and across the city’s 16,000 scattered-site apartments—say they want to see happen, especially as policymakers continue to pursue supportive housing as a main solution for reducing homelessness.
Supportive Housing Organized and United Tenants (SHOUT), a group made up of supportive housing residents, said nonprofits and the state agencies that fund them are not upholding their obligations to clients in many scattered-site settings.
“There is nothing ‘supportive’ about placing tenants in homes that are uninhabitable, and where formerly-homeless tenants are consistently exposed to dangerous, unhealthy, and psychologically distressing experiences,” SHOUT said in a statement. “That the agencies overseeing supportive housing contracts seem to have no idea that supportive housing tenants are residing in units owned by some of the city’s worst landlords—or are choosing to turn a blind eye—is a serious concern.”
Nonprofits often instruct scattered-site tenants to contact their case managers when they have a problem with their apartment rather than going directly to the property owner or manager. That adds another layer of bureaucracy that can prolong repairs and, SHOUT said, strips control from the tenant.
There is also another source of conflict that can undermine tenant needs: Nonprofits who alienate property owners could miss out on future apartment rentals, limiting their options in a tightening housing market.
But SHOUT said nonprofits should take tenants’ concerns seriously and actually fulfill their mission statements about serving low-income New Yorkers. The tenant group said they have urged city and state officials to increase oversight, investigate and intervene when living situations become dangerous, but those “requests have not been given the response that they deserve.”
“Tenants are still left on their own to fight for our rights to safe, decent, and stable housing,” they added.
That is what Scott, the mother who invited City Limits to her Bronx apartment, did when poor conditions persisted inside her third-floor unit. She sued Valentine Realty Associates, the Malinas-tied corporation listed as owner, and Postgraduate Center for repairs in November 2021. Valentine and Malinas never responded, documents show.
In court filings, Postgraduate Center said they were not notified about the apartment violations—Scott contends that she had alerted her case manager—and said it was the landlord’s responsibility to correct conditions in the building. Postgraduate “is not responsible and/or allowed to do repairs, so they cannot do any repairs requested,” the organization’s attorneys wrote.
A judge ordered the landlord to fix the problems and imposed daily fines, allowing Scott and her neighbors to finally get their cooking gas restored.
Postgraduate Center declined to comment on Scott’s specific experience, but said in general they immediately contact landlords to treat infestations or make repairs that they know about, while attempting to work with clients to address possible causes.
In rare cases, as at the East 182nd Street apartment, the organization said it will withhold rent until repairs are completed. But they said they do not want a reputation for not making monthly payments because that could turn off other landlords otherwise willing to rent to them. The organization also said it works with tenants to find new apartments that would be a better fit.
“I truly believe that we have obligations to help clients in the most effective way and for me, providing permanent housing was the element that has the greatest impact on a person’s life,” Barak said.
For Scott, the miserable living conditions are hopefully behind her.
She and her children last month moved into an apartment in a congregate supportive housing site run by another organization in Downtown Brooklyn. After living in four scattered-site apartments leased by Postgraduate Center—one in Brownsville, another in East New York, a third in East Harlem and the most recent place in The Bronx—she said she was happy to have a new start for her and her family.
“They were all just terrible,” she said of her past apartments. “This place is really nice, especially compared to where I came from.”
34 thoughts on “‘It’s Like a Slum’: Supportive Housing Tenants Cope with Violation-Filled Homes. Provider Blames Underfunding”
Excellent journalism. Thank you for your work!
1. Investigate the per unit rents on the individual leases, preferably go back to the initial lease. Non Profits signed leases for illegally increased base rents, which is how many landlords first participated in renting to supportive housing providers. They were able to circumvent rent stabilization increases.
2. Request the non profit submissions (applications) to NYS OMH and NYC DoHMH and HASA to see the commitments made by non profits to operate these units and support the client/tenants. In many instances, the non profits commit to the provision of repairs and that is why clients are instructed to inform the case manager.
3. Now look at the tenant/client lease agreement or whatever is the document they sign upon moving in and see if there are commitments regarding repairs, safe quality housing, etc.
4. Now look at the policy and procedure manual and verify the reporting of repairs procedure and see what the non profit indicates is their “system” for addressing replacements and repairs. Now where is the tracking system maintained by the non profit for theses Work Orders and how rapidly were the repairs completed.
How does the case manager document the tenant complaint? How does it get into the tracking system for work orders and how quickly must it be entered? Most important, how does the client get a receipt for the complaint to hold them accountable and what is the grievance procedure when a client/tenant is dissatisfied?
5. Caren Abate has worked in the NYC Field,Office for more than 20 years and gets the complaint phone calls. Ask for her records of complaints, investigations, and the resolution of the complaints.
NYS OMH, I don’t know about NYC DoHMH and HASA, has funded supportive apartments since 1991 and never had a system in place for inspecting the housing quality standards. They alleged that the NYS OMH was not responsible for “unlicensed” settings. They avoided direct involvement and preferred to avoid accountability by not officially knowing. 21 years and counting where NYS OMH hides clients in supportive housing. City Limits knows very well from your research on the Adult Home clients abandoned to their deaths in supportive housing.
Another aspect of supported housing is who signs the lease. If the agency/provider signs the lease and then subleases to the tenant then the tenant has less standing with the landlord. Where the lease is signed by the tenant then the tenant has greater standing and very specific tenant rights and protections. Many housing providers do not have the tenants sign the lease or the tenant is a co-signer with the agency where the tenant has less rights. OMH is expected to make visits to the OMH contracted housing programs, including a sample of resident apartments. Adequate funding for supported housing has been long standing problem and cannot be seen as only an OMH problem as Governors have for many years not cared to support increases.
I lived in scatter site housing sponsored by Community Access in Manhattan. It was safe, clean and well maintained
What did you do too cause it not to be safe, clean, and will maintenance?
Stop producing those you can not support… act like a slum, live in a slum, get treated like a slum. If you can’t better yourself, I’m sure as hell not going to do it for you… 3/5th is an exaggeration
You’re not Judgemental there at all now are you…
You clearly missed the entire point of this article. THE LIVING CONDITIONS of these buildings that are GOVERNMENT FUNDED or funded via Non-profit programs WAS THE KEY POINT not THE PEOPLE that live there with mental illness and other disabilities that are in these units Dummy. The landlords clearly getting the funds and not making proper and timely repairs. READING IS FUNDAMENTAL AND KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. If your house, condo, apartment or trailer had lead paint, no gas, no running water etc for months & pest infestation you would have issues with PAYING & STAYING there. I’m sure you wouldn’t be making them your fucking pets and saying everything is great here with a giant smile on your face. To stuck on white is right b.s I see by your ignorant name you used to post your lack of being able to comprehend THE BASE OF A ARTICLE that they teach in elementary school. NATIONAL MONTH OF THE IDIOTIC AWARD GOES TO 🥁 UYT. If you were to lose your job & legs today & every family member & your living environment & became wheelchair bound your situation would change just like these people that DON’T CHOOSE TO LIVE THAT WAY TO HAVE MENTAL ILLNESSES etc THAT IF THEY COULD LIVE BETTER PLACES THEY WOULD. Some people IN ALL NATIONALITIES do create their circumstances via gambling, alcohol or drugs etc and SOME DO NOT some are forced to do so bc they escaped abuse, lost a spouse or other negative situations. Point is IF ANYONE GETS MONEY TO PROVIDE A SERVICE WITH GOVERNMENT $ OR NOT. Use it for what it’s for THE UPKEEP OF THE PROPERTY i.e REMOVING LEAD PAINT, PROVIDING GAS & OTHER WORKING UTILITIES, REPAIRS & UPKEEP IN AND AROUND THE PROPERTY GROUNDS. PERIOD!!!! Stop the judgemental mentality YOU CLEARLY HAVE. Some famous rich people have lived in the same type of places or even their cars before they became rich. And THATS FACTS IF YOU READ PROPERLY.
Seriously, saying something like that after the fall of Roe is beyond arrogant. You also need to check your privilege and think about where your life would be if no one cleaned your office, swept your sidewalk, cooked the food or made the coffee you pick up, serviced you at your favorite grocery store or restaurant, or packed and delivered your packages. These people are necessary and most live in poverty. Without them you would be stuck at the bottom so stop stepping on their backs on your way up and wake up to the reality that all humans deserve safe housing not just the priveledged.
Thank goodness her,n her kids hv found a habital,clean,decent,safe place she,n the kids can hopefully feel more safe,n secure at. Keep ur head up mama. U,n ur kids r gonna b ok. God has all this. Jus bk up,n let God show up,n show out.
You have stated a very kind comment regarding the young lady with the child. The housing assistance program was not designed too stay on the program forever if you are able bodied too work, go to school, or buy a home, through the program. Tell her to inquire the FSS program and don’t look back!! No human being should live under those conditions. Start with filing a complaint with Fair Housing Dept., in your Statethe your stat, You also have the Regional Office in your state which is the HUD office over your MHA (housing authority over the county). If they do nothing, take it too the IG’s office in Washington D. C.
GOGGLE THE INFORMATION
That man making 913,000 dollars should be investigated by the Attorney General’s for fraudulent practices. Good Luck!
TRUTH SPOKE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CONTINUE TO SPEAK THE TRUTH!!!!!!!
The same thing is happening in Detroit Michigan how can I get help I have a housing choice voucher received it July 1st 2022 and I can’t even find a house that’s suitable to stay or I can’t afford the security deposit
It’s so sad, that y’all have to go through that. I live in Columbia SC with a voucher, 1 br 790 sq ft washer and dryer dishwasher $300 a month, god bless I pray that things get better!
Beggars can’t be choosers. Want something better work for it. Stop having babies and expecting society to set you up posh. When the city and tax payers are setting you up with housing they are meeting basic needs nothing more. Don’t like it then stop looking to everyone else to fix it. Get two jobs. You got time to screw and make babies then get yourself out of the slums.
Amen . Why are you special
Did you even read the article properly stating these tenets have mental illness, HIV/AIDS or other disabilities and the program gets GOVERNMENT $ to RENT out these units? It’s more about the living conditions of the buildings and taking people money &OR GOVERNMENT MONEY and NOT FIXING SHIT w it. Living without gas for several months is unacceptable for anyone RICH MIDDLE CLASS OR IMPOVERISHED. You never know a persons situation of how they got where they are in life. It’s not about having babies and living off the government A H. Reading is FUNDAMENTAL and your clearly heartless. I’m sure most people if they have the means or opportunity not to live in a LEAD PAINT, MOUSE &ROACH infested apartment THEY WOULD NOT. Most of the homeless are VETERANS that I’m sure are entitled to benefits for their service but nobody in the gov looking for them to get them their benefits which for some may include benefits of V.A loan. People don’t wake up saying damn let me go sleep in a building full of roaches, no gas, no heat, no water tonight. It’s people like you that keep the b.s going with this backwards dumb stereotypical thinking. Karma been looking for alot of y’all dummies this year and the list getting longer. JUDGE NOT BE YE NOT JUDGED.
Ha! Excellent journalism just words of stories. Stories that has been told for centuries, a waste of words. Why are these stories so over and over again? Generations and generations of people all races have experiencing stories like those. Telling them get you WHAT???
After reading this I’m glad I don’t live in New York.!
This is the way it was and continues to be.
Prior to 2000 when SM landlords and others had month to month contracts. Those who lived in these places had to make the repairs themselves.
Finally. After tenants fixed the places up and things were reasonable these landlords started to push people out, and when they couldn’t push, they evicted on false grounds and created illegal and retaliatory evictions giving people nothing but grief and leaving them those they jobs because they didn’t now have a home and homeless on the street to pull themselves back up if they could.
These landlords who do this should have their funds frozen. Car keys taken away and forced to endure living on a tent on the street to experience first hand the pain and suffering and mental illness they create from the harshness of the street first hand.
I bet their attitudes would change real fast.
I saw how one guy abused a woman who cleaned my house and the violations. It was sickening. He saw me one day with her and he was nervous. He needed to be.
This behavior has to stop. The elected officials and judges need to put the screws yo these type of people.
The need for housing and services for those with mental health issues is apparently far more crucial than we thought! At least two commenters on this thread are exhibiting mental health distress in the form of delusional thoughts, bigotry, narcissism and antisocial behaviors… Yeah, you know who you are.
It’s almost as if operating a building where people can’t pay their own way is very difficult even for those with the best intentions.
The Math isn’t mathing, the non-profit would be wise to get out of this business.
These kind of situations are happening all around against the mental health omh need to check out all these facilities more people should speak up and not be afraid of consequences and start reporting the abuse bottom line we are all human and everyone has a start middle and ending you never no where life will take you
Dont judge!!!!!!!!
This is horrible. Too bad nobody has heard of this “publiction” or will really read it. Maybe if it was a real newspaper or news outlet.
3/5 of WHAT …….??? 🤔🤔🤔👁👁
WHERE IS MY 2nd COMMENT RE:CORPORATE WELFARE and BAILOUTS ……..???
How Dare You.
You don’t know this woman, or the circumstances that brought her to that horrible apartment, yet you have the audacity to judge her with your hateful ignorance.
Clearly she is a loving mother trying to do her level best to make a better life for her children and herself, trying to find a good, safe place to live and a better future.
There are thousands of children who are not so lucky and live in all kinds of homes rich and poor and middle class all over the world who live with abuse, neglect and cruelty because their parent/or parents make their lives a daily hell.
This mother Choice is clearly a good woman and mother who has had some hard times and is rising to the situation of being a single mother.
It’s interesting that no mention is made of the father in your hateful judgement. Easy to target a single woman with kids online, right?
May God bless Choice Scott and her children in a better future.
And may you learn “Not to judge not lest ye be judged.”
Wow.. wonder how much this ignorance will cost your Publisher in defamation law suits. You sure was reaching for a story. It’s sad how you tried to exploit the people of color, for your story. Couldn’t you find any Caucasian that are suffering under the big bad wolf Jacob. Or is he only mistreating the colored tenants?
First, you said the building was out of gas for seven months, then you say the hot plates were given the pervious summer, which sound more like a year, which is it David…7 months or a year? Your Publisher should’ve told you there’s a difference.. you dummie..And where all the pictures of the repairs.. 2 bullshit pictures.. no pics of mice or roaches.. lol.. you was reaching.. LIAR
Do you even know scatter site is for single adults, and is not equipped to handle children, and how long the staff was working on obtaining family housing? I know you don’t think this bullshit article got her moved.
When any building is having con Edison issues where gas or electricity is down the reasonable thing to do at bare minimum is give out hot plates.
What’s sad is even OMH turned their backs, they didn’t mention to you how the program is audit several times a year, by their inspectors, what did they miss all your imaginary repairs?
I wonder how Jacob is going to spend the money he makes of your stupidity.
You should’ve started this fictional shit with.. In a land far far away there was a big bad wolf named Jacob..
The way you was coming for Jacob, makes me wonder.. was you that kid on the court he didn’t let play.. or maybe your application was denied to get in to the agency…lol.. you sound like a bitter bitch.. just screaming making no sense 😭….
Wow.. wonder how much this ignorance will cost your Publisher in defamation law suits. You sure was reaching for a story. It’s sad how you tried to exploit the people of color, for your story. Couldn’t you find any Caucasian that are suffering under the big bad wolf Jacob. Or is he only mistreating the colored tenants?
First, you said the building was out of gas for seven months, then you say the hot plates were given the pervious summer, which sound more like a year, which is it David…7 months or a year? Your Publisher should’ve told you there’s a difference.. you dummie..And where all the pictures of the repairs.. 2 bullshit pictures.. no pics of mice or roaches.. lol.. you was reaching.. LIAR
Do you even know scatter site is for single adults, and is not equipped to handle children, and how long the staff was working on obtaining family housing? I know you don’t think this bullshit article got her moved.
When any building is having con Edison issues where gas or electricity is down the reasonable thing to do at bare minimum is give out hot plates.
What’s sad is even OMH turned their backs, they didn’t mention to you how the program is audit several times a year, by their inspectors, what did they miss all your imaginary repairs?
I wonder how Jacob is going to spend the money he makes of your stupidity.
You should’ve started this fictional shit with.. In a land far far away there was a big bad wolf named Jacob..
The way you was coming for Jacob, makes me wonder.. was you that kid on the court he didn’t let play.. or maybe your application was denied to get in to the agency…lol.. you sound like a bitter bitch.. just screaming making no sense 😭….
It seems that landlords and SH providers frequently play pass the buck rather than take responsibility for making repairs. Are there CLEAR lines as to who is responsible? If not, then there should be a law!
IMO, the landlord should be responsible since they own the apartment but the SH provider should also be a responsible agent to put pressure on landlords to make repairs. If landlords don’t make repairs, then providers should hold rent in escrow till they do. And if a landlord retaliates against the SH provider there should be additional penalties to the landlord. You want to remove the excuse that SH providers make when they are hesitant to put pressure on landlords for fear of losing a contract with a lousy landlord.
So important that you are putting “human faces” to the terrible challenges and inhumane conditions that people with real needs are facing – people and conditions that have been ignored by government and the public for years and that are exacerbated by so-called concerned leaders of non-profits and by criminally negligent and heartless landlords. And a “rainy day” fund of $130M for the agency you describe – all while their tenants are living in a “sh..storm” every day! This is so reminiscent of the 1970’s reporting on the horrible conditions at Willowbrook in Staten Island, so please keep this reporting going. Change will only come when the truth is told and when good people have the courage to step up and advocate for doing the right thing!
This is not an investigative report but yellow journalism with a goal to destroy SH services. What do you know about the people you interviewed? have you seen their clinical files? How many of SH tenants are working to support themselves? Do you think many landlords are willing to have mentally ill as tenants? Do you believe the public is willing to reduce budgets for police, city workforce, union benefits, infrastructure or sanitation and increase expenses for homeless individuals? Perhaps you believe that we should increase taxes in the city? Your “investigation” is one sided does not have the real facts and should be label as opinion , the same way FOX news define their work.
I was at lasalle for over a year. Mice in the apt and being sexually harassed and i am a guy(don’t ask) the apt was big and the location was ok but it was infested w rodents
Wish we had someone like citylimits out here in oc ca. The supportive housing by way of giving support with landlord management issues. BeWiseOc@gmail.com
If you know of weat coast city limits partner out here shoot them my email