‘FAILURE’ REWARDED

$68M for lousy homeless org.

A nonprofit running what has been slammed as largely ineffective homeless-outreach efforts in the subway system is slated to get an even fatter city contract this summer to keep up the work, officials confirmed Thursday.

The Department of Homeless Services has agreed to re-up and expand its program with the Bowery Residents’ Committee, offering $68 million to extend the group’s outreach over the next three years, despite the mounting outside criticism of its efforts.

The deal marks a 68 percent increase from the current $40.6 million, three-year contract the city struck with the nonprofit, which is expiring at the end of the month, The City news Web site first reported.

The larger contract will cover the rise in homeless services and the hiring of more outreach workers, according to DHS.

“Outreach to unsheltered New Yorkers during these unprecedented times is our city’s top priority — and our outreach teams continue engaging New Yorkers in need 24/7/365, to help them off the streets and into shelter,” said DHS spokeswoman Arianna Fishman.

The new contract, which involves a partnership with the MTA, comes on the heels two recent audits criticizing the program’s failing efforts to get homeless New Yorkers out of the subways and into care.

A report released this week by the MTA’s inspector general described BRC’s work in the subways as “very expensive” and “minimally effective.”

The 10-person teams of MTA cops and social workers from BRC lured just three transients out of the system per station per night as police racked up overtime, according to the IG’s Office.

The MTA, meanwhile, had not instituted proper oversight to track the program’s impact, according to the report. The city and the MTA had no idea as to whether the homeless who actually did accept help received temporary or permanent shelter, or just ended up back in the subway system.

That report followed a separate audit from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli in January that billed BRC’s outreach as a poorly supervised “failure.”

The ramped-up effort comes as the MTA continues its unprecedented 1-to-5 a.m. subway closures, which Gov. Cuomo implemented last month to clear out the homeless during the pandemic and to sanitize the entire system every overnight.