A former high-ranking official is suing the de Blasio administration, claiming he was fired after complaining about a corrupt tenant-selection process involving subsidized apartments at the city’s housing agency.
Ricarte Echevarria, who served as director of the city’s Tenant Interim Lease program at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development until September 2016, says in court papers that a supervisor ordered him to award a city-subsidized apartment to an out-of-towner who had a relative in city government.
The demand for subsidized apartments in the city is so enormous that tens of thousands of applications routinely pour in when small numbers of units hit the market.
Echevarria accused HPD Deputy Commissioner Anne-Marie Hendrickson of directing him to “grant an apartment in one of the buildings he managed” to a Mr. Brown, who was not further identified in the suit, which was filed in Manhattan federal court.
“As Mr. Brown was a resident of another state, providing [him] with one of the low-income apartments violated relevant laws and regulations,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Mr. Brown was not selected or approved by any tenant association.”
The suit noted that Brown is the relative of a city Law Department employee.
Echevarria’s lawsuit says he lost his job after filing a complaint with the city’s Department of Investigation.
He claims that in January 2016, Hendrickson ordered him in an e-mail to give an apartment to Brown.
After receiving the message, he said he complained to HPD Assistant Commissioner Vivian Louie, who responded that she “hated when [Hendrickson] does stuff like this.”
Louie then “conceded” that Brown met none of the criteria needed to get housing through the program but she and Hendrickson awarded it to him anyway, the lawsuit claims.
Echevarria brought the matter to DOI in May 2016, and four months later was fired — in what he contends was retaliation.
The Tenant Interim Lease program is intended to aid tenant organizations in developing self-sufficient co-ops where residents can rent apartments for nominal cost — in some cases for as little as $250 a month. Tenant associations are supposed to select tenants, who are then approved by HPD.
The program was launched as a way to preserve housing that fell into disrepair in the 1970s.
Echevarria, who declined to comment, is seeking unspecified damages. City Hall and HPD did not respond to requests for comment.
Hendrickson — who appeared with Mayor de Blasio at a town-hall meeting in Brooklyn Wednesday night — did not return multiple requests for comment.
Louie could not be immediately reached.
Late Thursday night, a mayoral spokesperson said the city would fight the suit.
“The allegations are without merit. We will defend our actions in court,” said spokeswoman Melissa Grace.