By Helen Klein
A controversial homeless shelter that opened last January is under the microscope. The city’s Department of Investigation (DOI) is reportedly looking into allegations of improprieties at Tilden Hall, 2520 Tilden Avenue, where the city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) unveiled a pilot project with great fanfare a little over a year ago. A spokesperson for DOI, Diane Struzzi, declined comment when asked about the investigation by a reporter. However, sources say that the agency began looking into the operation last year. In 2007, a former employee at the shelter notified the mayor’s office, as well as the New York State attorney general’s office and the New York City comptroller’s office, of a range of concerns regarding the shelter and the not-for-profit company that operates it, Highland Park Community Development Corporation (HPCDC), which was running its first homeless shelter at the Flatbush site. Ralph Gonzalez, who was the program director of the shelter from the time it opened until April 2007, when he was fired, wrote about his concerns to HPCDC in January, not long after the shelter opened its doors. Subsequently, Gonzalez — whose family loaned HPCDC close to $300,000 at one point so the organization would have the necessary money to start up the facility — forwarded his list of 32 concerns to DHS. He also met with DHS staffers in June 2007 to discuss the allegations. The concerns cited by Gonzalez included allegations of “sexual discrimination, harassment and termination” of one former employee of the shelter, as well as allegations of “fiscal improprieties,” as explained in an October 22 email to the comptroller’s office. The contract to run Tilden Hall is a lucrative one. According to one source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, HPCDC was paid $192 per night for each of the facility’s 117 apartments, for a total of $22,464 a night, or $8,199,360 per year. That amount is supposed to cover not just the cost of housing the homeless families, but also job training and other client services. The same source said that HPCDC “still owes $1 million” to various creditors. There’s a political component to the situation as well. HPCDC was incorporated in 1998 at the address that, at the time, housed the office of Assemblymember Darryl Towns, who reportedly allocated funding to the organization. HPCDC’s executive director is Robert Santiago, the treasurer of Towns’ election campaign, and the program director of Tilden Hall is Kenya Blount, Towns’ brother-in-law. DHS is doing an audit of operations at Tilden Hall, said Eric Deutsch, a DHS spokesperson. “A DHS staff member responsible for oversight of Tilden Hall noticed discrepancies involving Highland Park and initiated an audit and investigation, before Mr. Gonzalez brought his claims to DHS,” Deutsch explained. “Mr. Gonzalez’s claims were reviewed within the contest of the audit and investigation,” he added. As to whether DHS will continue to do business with HPCDC, Deutsch said that this would depend on the results of the agency audit and investigation. “Upon analyzing the results of the audit and investigation,” he said, “ DHS will make a final decision on whether to continue working with Highland Park.” Deutsch defended the agency’s selection of an organization without prior experience in running homeless shelters to take the helm at Tilden Hall. “We always seek new organizations to add to our portfolio of service providers and especially encourage community-based nonprofits to participate,” Deutsch told this paper. “So, we do not regret taking the chance on a community-based entity to run Tilden Hall and reserve judgment until the results of the investigation and audit are analyzed.” Tilden Hall opened after several months of hearings at which a broad spectrum of area residents expressed opposition to the idea of a transitional homeless shelter in the community. In particular, they expressed anger that DHS was proceeding with the shelter, several months after Highland Park had informed the community board of a proposal to open a senior residence at the site, which originally was constructed for use as a homeless shelter that would have been run by the Salvation Army. DHS had decided not to go ahead with that initial plan, in 2005, citing a decline in the need for such facilities, reverting to the plan in 2006 after the number of people seeking shelter rose. In addition, there were reiterated complaints that DHS had tried to push the shelter through quickly, without proper planning. At the time it presented its revised plan, agency officials had told community board members and area residents that the need for it was great and that, while it did not have a DHS-run shelter, CB 17 was 16th out of the 59 community boards citywide in terms of the number of its residents who seek shelter from DHS. Santiago, contacted for a response, declined to comment. “I can’t respond at this time,” he told this paper. “Hopefully, down the road, we will be in a position where we can.” By press time, Towns’ office had not responded to a request for comment.
