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.
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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.
And now the city’s spending $4.6 million a day just on housing and feeding illegal migrants, offering plenty more potential for insider dealing.
Heck, even the nepotism angle with the Carter-Smith sisters isn’t unique: The office of Comptroller Brad Lander, which flagged the issue, reviews city contracts with dozens of nonprofits tied to a group run by his wife Meg Barnette.
With just 8 million residents, New York City’s budget is larger than those of nearly all US states. That leaves a lot of opportunity for nonprofit profiteering.
