QUEENS — Executives at the nonprofit that operated a Bronx shelter apartment unit where a malfunctioning radiator killed two toddlers were involved in a home purchase that raised red flags among charity watchdogs, DNAinfo New York has learned.
Douglas Wood, the director of shelters at the nonprofit Bushwick Economic Development Corp., or BEDCO, used the organization's lawyer to act as his personal attorney in the purchase of a Rosedale home for $377,500 in 2012, city property records show.
At the time of the sale, BEDCO's executive director, Frank Boswell, had been renting the home since at least 2007, according to public records and the property's former owner.
When the sale happened, Boswell had federal tax liens against him for unpaid taxes — which make obtaining a mortgage nearly impossible. Boswell continued to live there, however, after Wood bought the home, public property records show.
"That absolutely doesn’t seem like a best practice," said Leonie Giles, a senior program analyst at the nonprofit watchdog Charity Navigator.
Giles said that a nonprofit seeking to maintain a high degree of integrity should have both a conflict of interest policy for its board of directors and its employees.
Giles said that BEDCO's federal tax returns show that it has a policy in place for board of directors to disclose potential conflicts of interest, but none exists for its employees like Boswell and Wood.
She said a conflict of interest policy for employees is "exactly for situations like this," noting that it's unclear why these two employees and the nonprofit's lawyers were involved in the home purchase.
BEDCO — which has gotten hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts from the city to run shelters and cluster-site housing — operated a shelter apartment in the Bronx where Scylee Vayoh Amrose, 1, and Ibanez Ambrose, 2, were killed Dec. 7 by a radiator spewing scorching steam.
DNAinfo New York has reported the nonprofit currently owes $532,000 in unpaid taxes, and its executives failed to inform the city about the liens in mandatory disclosure filings. The nonprofit has also been the subject of two Department of Investigation probes, and Boswell has been accused of bribing city Department of Homeless Services employees.
DNAinfo also reported that a landlord that rents shelter space to BEDCO had warned a Homeless Services commissioner about the nonprofit owing millions of dollars in rent and refusing to fix dangerous housing violations.
Even so, the Department of Homeless Services continues to fund BEDCO, paying it $3.28 million in January alone, city contract records show.
When asked why the city continues to work with BEDCO, a Homeless Services spokeswoman said: “As part of our ongoing review of all aspects of shelter system operations, we have concerns about this vendor and we are conducting an extensive review of the BEDCO contract agreements, many of which have been in place for many years.”
Boswell and Wood did not respond to requests for comment.
Christopher Sowers, the lawyer who represents BEDCO and served as Wood's personal attorney in the home purchase, declined to comment.
"He doesn't comment on client affairs," his assistant told DNAinfo.
