Just when you began to believe in humanity......Okay, who am I kidding? I guess I just love stories about stupidity because this one might take the cake, especially on the heels of those two guys from Georgia who put their dead friend in the backseat of their car and went on a drinking spree using his ATM card. (Read last week's blog: "Weekend at Jeffrey's") This is just a prime example that New York City is just full of scam artists. Some, you wouldn't even expect!
According to the New York Daily News, the City has been paying approximately $12 million in rent subsidies to nearly 4000 people who have been dead for decades. That's right! Instead, landlords and relatives have been cashing in on the monthly checks. This shocking new discovery was made by city Controller John Liu in a recent city audit. Liu's office recently turned the findings over to the Manhattan District Attorney's office to determine if any crimes were committed? Ummmm.....How about FRAUD? I believe that's still a crime!
Anyway, city officials say that they've already recouped $3.3 million of the morbid profits, but that's not even half! Seriously, isn't it bad enough that tax payers are paying rent for people who can't afford it? Let alone, now paying the rent for people who no longer exist? This is ridiculous, but for some reason, I find it comical since I no longer live in the city! Apparently, the officials say that they spotted some of the errors even before Liu called them out, and began implementing safeguards to 'make sure that the dead are never again on the city dole.'
This problem emerged thanks to a popular city program called "Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption Program", which was set up to help low-income elders pay their rents. Tenants, 62 years or older, who live in rent stabilized or rent controlled apartments, and make less than $29,000 a year can qualify for this benefit. The program was supposed to freeze their rents and give their landlords a tax break to cover the lost income. Those landlords and/or family members of the deceased are given a 30-day leeway period to notify the city if the participating elder has moved or passed on. Instead, the landlords and relatives of 3,800 tenants, who have been dead for as long as a decade, continued to cash in on the benefit.
It seems that in most cases, there was a greedy landlord at fault, but in some cases, there was a friend or family member of the deceased who wanted to enjoy low rents, and never reported the death. I think that the landlords should definitely suffer because greed does not pay! I'm a little torn on the latter excuse because rent in the city is pretty high and I can understand trying to get a cheaper rent in this economy, but it's still not right to try to scam the system, though we've all tried. You just can't get caught! The only people that I really feel bad for in this scenario is the senior citizens applying for this benefit because now the city is going to crack down to make sure the money is going to the right place. Then again, if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. I still can't stop laughing about landlords succeeding with this scam after almost a decade. You gotta love New York City!
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