A politically connected Harlem housing provider is set to sell a vacant plot of land for $ 1.2 million — but critics doubt the windfall will actually help needy tenants.
The Greater Harlem Housing Development Corp. is also in line to receive $ 2 million in a forgivable loan from the city.
The organization oversees 117 units of affordable housing and has said it needs the money from the property sale to preserve its housing stock.
But one advocate said the group has failed miserably in its mandate, and tenants complain of “almost unlivable conditions.”
“The city cannot just continue to give away money to slumlords who have no intention of preserving the affordable housing they already have,” said Jaron Benjamin, executive director of Metropolitan Council on Housing. “I don’t think they can be trusted anymore.”
In fact, the proceeds will not go to repair Greater Harlem’s dilapidated buildings but to pay off the troubled nonprofit’s mounting debts, The Post has learned.
Among its list of creditors is Con Ed, which won a $ 172,166 court judgment for back bills in 2008. It also owes a supply company $ 9,596 and its law firm $ 103,257.
The group has taken dozens of tenants to court for unpaid rent, but many of the actions have come after residents have withheld their monthly payments to protest living conditions.
“I had no oven for a year,” said resident Tamela Bennett, who added that her front door sometimes would not open and her windows would not open or close.
Greater Harlem sued Bennett last year for nonpayment of $ 12,302 in rent. Bennett, in turn, sued for lack of repairs.
She said repair work started only after she filed the court action.
Greater Harlem Housing Development Corp. is an offshoot of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce.
Both are run by Harlem power broker Lloyd Williams, who is close to Rep. Charles Rangel and Councilwoman Inez Dickens.
The housing group amassed a collection of apartment buildings 20 years ago as the city sold them off for little money. The buildings were renovated and turned into affordable housing, but there were soon problems.
Greater Harlem Housing faced a foreclosure action in 1997 and again in 2005 when loans went unpaid.
Despite the organization’s rocky finances and dubious track record, the city advanced it $ 2.55 million in a forgivable loan in 2008 to repair boilers, plumbing and fix other problems.
Six years later, there is still much to be done.
The 13 buildings have 650 violations, according to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
The department is advancing Greater Harlem another $ 2 million in a forgivable loan to fix up building exteriors, roofs, chimneys, stairs, doors, windows, intercoms, boilers, security systems and fire escapes. But it won’t get the money until it fixes the most hazardous violations first, according to the department.
And the agency maintains it has “worked out an agreement” with Greater Harlem to pay off debts “that could otherwise lead to loss of the affordable housing.”
In another effort to improve its cash flow, Greater Harlem brought in a property-management firm a year ago to collect rent.
The organization took in $ 1.4 million in rent in 2011 and had expenses of $ 1.6 million, according to its tax filing for that year.
It’s impossible to know how the group spent its money more recently because it has not filed its 2012 return, which was due in November 2013. Greater Harlem’s treasurer said it would be finalized in March or April.
Additional reporting by Kathianne Boniello
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