In a press release, Mr. Rivera, 60, vehemently denied any wrongdoing and stated he had at all times treated girls with respect. He stated that he started the organization two decades in the past with little enterprise experience and a reliance on his personal connections, but had labored to professionalize the group. Amy julia harrisIn July 2019, I acquired an anonymous tip that was despatched to The New York Times that basically stated, you want to look into this man named Victor Rivera who operates a network of homeless shelters. So it was somewhat bit of a obscure tip, and that piqued my curiosity, and I wanted to learn more. The Department of Social Services has defended its report in cracking down on the conduct of its shelter suppliers, together with Mr. Rivera.

“He walks about as if he’s untouchable,” mentioned Vanessa Anderson, a former payroll accountant who left the nonprofit in 2018 and said Mr. Rivera had made sexually inappropriate comments to her. Victor Rivera was a founder and the longtime president and chief govt of the Bronx Parent Housing Network. A housing boss answerable for the flat the place two-year-old Awaab Ishak died as a end result of mould has refused to resign, claiming that conversations about his place have “begun to overshadow” the tragedy. In New York, a city with a few of the highest actual property values within the nation, officials say there are a limited number of nonprofits prepared and able to run shelters.

And that’s when Victor Rivera actually made his play, and his nonprofit group applied to run a number of these new sites and gained multimillion-dollar contracts. For reference, in 2012 the Bronx Parent Housing Network was bringing in about $1 million in income, and more just lately, they’re bringing in upwards of $81 million. City officials knew about a few of Mr. Rivera’s monetary irregularities — a whistle-blower complained about nepotism and conflicts of interest in 2017 — however still poured tens of millions into the organization.

A spokesman for Mr. de Blasio couldn’t provide any more particulars on the review or its scope. A spokesman for the Department of Social Services didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Bronx Parent Housing Network began as a small operation but has grown substantially as the city’s homeless inhabitants has climbed to 78,000. The group has been awarded greater than $274 million in contracts lately. Councilman Stephen Levin, a Democrat from Brooklyn, questioned why the New York Department of Social Services, which contracts with the organizations that function shelters, didn’t refer issues with Mr. Rivera to metropolis investigators earlier.

So consequently, New York City spends greater than $2 billion a 12 months to deal with homeless people. And now there are a record 78,000 homeless individuals in New York City, so this shelter system has really ballooned. And she stated as quickly as he got here in, he stated he wished to see a leak in her bedroom. So she was very apprehensive at this point shane zachary son, she mentioned, however it sounded believable. And at that time, she said that he turned off the lights and shoved her towards a wall and commenced kissing her. And he requested her if she favored residing in his house and then demanded that she give him oral sex.