Jun 24, 2008 10:40 am US/Eastern
CBS 2 Investigates Non-Profit Housing Organization
The Lantern Group Took Millions From NYC To Provide Affordable Housing For Less Fortunate, But Has Failed
Housing Preservation & Development Department Shuns Interview
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Cockroaches, bed bugs, dangerous mold and filth are common inside the NYC housing buildings supposedly run by The Lantern Group.
CBS
Many of New York City's less fortunate have been forced to live in filth.
A CBS 2 HD exclusive investigation has found that a non-profit group that promises to provide housing to the City's most vulnerable was doing anything but that.
"The Lantern Group" took millions of dollars from the city to provide clean, safe and affordable housing for the mentally ill, recovering drug addicts and others in need.
Instead, they've living in deplorable conditions, and you're paying for it.
On East 118th Street, Maria Montalvo lives with HIV in an apartment that is filthy and in disrepair. The Lantern Group built Schafer Hall seven years ago, and recently took over its management, or, as Maria says, its mismanagement.
"On the fourth, fifth floor they found a man who was dead for four days," Montalvo said.
The Lantern Group was charging Maria over twice the federally-limited rent. Manhattan Legal Services sued.
"When you go inside and you see how they actually maintain these buildings you realize they're not there to necessarily help this vulnerable population, they're there to make a profit," said Ime Nsa Imeh of Manhattan Legal Services.
On West 94th Street, in a building named St. Louis Hall, managed for the past two years by The Lantern Group, 73-year-old Rolande Cutner, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, shares her tiny room with dozens of stuffed animals.
"Because I live alone so I want to make sure I'm not alone," Cutner said.
Unfortunately, she and other residents also share their rooms with rats, mice, roaches, bedbugs and, as this building inspection shows, dangerously toxic black mold.
Rolande says it wasn't always so -- just since The Lantern Group took over.
"They let the building really deteriorate," she said.
Attorney Michael Hiller, who is representing the tenants, said he is horrified by the conditions.
"From everything I've seen so far, The Lantern Group is a slumlord," Hiller said.
The Lantern Group's mysterious president, T. Eric Galloway, wouldn't talk to CBS 2 HD. But we did find his 6,000 square-foot mansion in Hudson, N.Y., one of many properties he's managed to buy on a $100,000 salary.
CBS 2 HD asked the city's Housing Preservation and Development Department for comment. The HPD is the agency that oversees this kind of subsidized housing. It's the same agency that just handed a $15 million, interest-free loan to The Lantern Group to develop the St. Louis into housing for the mentally ill.
The HPD declined CBS 2 HD's request for an interview, saying we were being unfair to The Lantern Group.
In an e-mail, an HPD spokesman said, "Clearly, a story that raises allegations about The Lantern Group requires an opportunity for them to respond."
Even when we explained to HPD that over the past seven months we repeatedly requested an interview with anyone from The Lantern Group and were turned down, the Housing Department still refused an interview.
So here's a suggestion for HPD commissioner Shaun Donovan. Come on camera to explain this. Or better yet, take a tour of The St. Louis with me, and we'll see who's being unfair to the people you should be looking out for. Not the ones you evidently are.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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