$4.6B SHELTER SHAME Shady-op deals

Some $4.6 billion has flowed from City Hall to scandal-tarred shelter operators over the past eight years, accounting for more than a quarter of the money spent by the Big Apple to tackle its homelessness crisis, an examination of city records reveals.

The billions in contracts identified by The Post account for 29 percent of the $15.8 billion total spent by the Department of Homeless Services over Mayor de Blasio’s time in office.

Money has gone out to more than half a dozen shelter operators — including the embattled CORE Services Group — that have each been accused of issues ranging from failing to deliver on multimillion-dollar contracts to executive profiteering.

“The idea that public dollars are going to fund lavish lifestyles of nonprofit executives and their families, instead of helping the neediest, should outrage every New Yorker,” said an outraged Councilman Stephen Levin (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the City Council committee who oversees the DHS, when told of The Post’s findings.

“That money should be going to get families and children out of shelters and into apartments,” he added. “A child should not be spending a year and a half of their life living in a hotel room.”

For years, homeless activists and social-service providers have argued that City Hall underfunded contracts to operate the Big Apple’s shelter system — and, compounding the problem, often failed to pay operators on schedule.

That meant well-established organizations often refused to bid on jobs, opening the door to potentially less reputable providers.

“The amount of money identified and the amount of scandal suggests there are major, major problems with these contracts,” said John Kaehny, the head of government watchdog group Reinvent Albany.

The group called on the feds to get involved.

“Only federal investigators have the money and the resources to get to the bottom of this massive systemic failure,” Kaehny said.

In response to questions, officials defended their performance watch-dogging the nonprofits, arguing in a statement that DHS is applying more scrutiny now than in the past and commissioned an audit of all providers set to be completed by year’s end.

“This Administration has created and strengthened mechanisms for accountability where none previously

existed,” said DHS spokesman Isaac McGinn.