HOMELESS HELL

Hovels cited for disrepair rising

Despite multiple commitments to make all shelters safe for homeless residents, conditions at the city’s 280 cluster sites — the same mixed-residential buildings where a radiator leak this week killed two toddlers — have actually gotten worse over the past year, records show.

There were 14,418 violations in cluster sites in December 2015, just months after the city said it was expanding its shelter repair program to include all types of residences where the homeless are placed.

But as of Oct. 31, the number of open violations at the sites had increased by more than 7 percent — with 15,480 violations awaiting repairs.

The number of open high-priority violations at these buildings also edged up, from 1,065 in December 2015 to 1,096 in late October.

“If we’re going to protect our homeless families and children, then the city must keep its promise and eliminate clusters,” said city Comptroller Scott Stringer, whose office has conducted reviews of shelter conditions. “We clearly have a crisis, but we are no doubt sliding backwards.”

Remarkably, the increase in violations includes those at a building that was specifically highlighted by the Department of Investigation in a March 2015 probe of shelter conditions.

The report found 56 violations at a building on East 174th Street in The Bronx run by the Bushwick Economic Development Corp. on July 9, 2014.

As of Oct. 31, 2016, the building had 95 open violations, including 10 tagged as high-priority.

BEDCO is the service provider that helped place and support the five homeless families at the building where the Ambrose sisters — 2-year-old Ibanez and 1-year-old Scylee — died this week.

Inspectors from the Department of Social Serv- ices visited the Ambrose apartment on Nov. 2 and Dec. 5. The radiators were inspected, but nothing was found to be wrong with them.

A BEDCO staffer said executive director Frank Boswell was busy Friday, and would not pass along a message seeking comment.

The agency provides social services out of 42 cluster-site buildings with 422 units — which house both homeless and non-homeless residents — and at which city inspectors have logged 2,274 violations.

The cluster program costs the city about $125 million a year for housing and support services covering 11,000 homeless people.

In January, the city announced a three-year plan to phase out the use of clusters, but with a commitment to improve conditions in the meantime.