Nonprofit in girls’ deaths under probe
CITY INVESTIGATORS are looking into the finances of the nonprofit operator of the shelter apartment where two young Bronx sisters were scalded to death by steam from a malfunctioning radiator, the Daily News has learned.
The Bushwick Economic Development Corp., or BEDCO, said in a recent disclosure to the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services that the Department of Investigation had opened a probe in late January into how it uses its funding.
Since 2004, the Brooklyn-based nonprofit has received at least $116 million in city contracts to run traditional shelters and clustersite housing, where homeless families are placed in units in privately owned apartment buildings.
But BEDCO’s finances have come under scrutiny since 1-yearold Scylee Ambrose and 2-yearold Ibanez Ambrose were killed in a BEDCO-run cluster-housing unit in Hunts Point.
State and city records show the nonprofit has had tax problems for years, but failed to disclose them to the city as contractors are required to do. Most recently, the state Taxation and Finance Department slapped BEDCO with a tax warrant for $532,898 on Dec. 6, a day before the Ambrose sisters’ tragic deaths. BEDCO paid the money back to the state last month after the lien came to light in news reports.
The nonprofit has also been sued for millions of dollars in back rent by the owners of buildings it leases for shelters, lawsuits show.
The city Homeless Services Department said in February that it planned to sever all cluster-site housing and hotel shelter contracts with BEDCO.
BEDCO, however, still has contracts with Homeless Services to operate three traditional shelters. Contracts for those shelters expire June 30.
Isaac McGinn, a spokesman for Homeless Services, said the agency is still determining whether to renew the contracts and will make its decision based on a review of BEDCO’s compliance with a corrective action plan.
BEDCO’s executive director, Frank Boswell, did not respond to a request for comment.
DOI is also investigating the little girls’ deaths and has subpoenaed records from BEDCO and M&G LLC, the property manager of the Hunts Point apartment building where the tragedy occurred.