OT Spare Change for Homeless? Cuomo Sees a Sham and Sues
Matthew Kruk
Spare Change for Homeless? Cuomo Sees a Sham and Sues
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
In Manhattan, they are as common a sight as the homeless themselves: the
United Homeless Organization's street-corner donation tables, operated
with little more than a large plastic jug and a worker pleading for
coins and bills for the needy.
The workers, clad in aprons bearing the group's logo, are all homeless
or formerly homeless, and the organization says that the donations help
pay for food pantries, clothing, detox centers and other services.
Skeptical New Yorkers who wondered over the years just where the money
ended up wondered just as often if they were perhaps being too
skeptical.
Until Tuesday, that is, when New York's attorney general, Andrew M.
Cuomo, described the United Homeless Organization as a sham. His office
filed a lawsuit against the group, alleging that its president, a
formerly homeless Bronx man named Stephen Riley, and its director, Myra
Walker, used tens of thousands of dollars from the group for personal
expenses while failing to provide any services for the homeless.
The expenses, the lawsuit said, included premium cable television
service at Mr. Riley's apartment; restaurant meals; trips to Cleveland,
Mr. Riley's hometown; and shopping purchases from GameStop, the Home
Shopping Network and the Web site for Weight Watchers.
The table workers pay Mr. Riley and Ms. Walker a $15-per-shift fee to
use the group's tables and materials, and keep the rest of what they
collect, according to the lawsuit. It said that Mr. Riley and Ms. Walker
used the fees as "their personal kitty," routinely flouted nonprofit and
charitable solicitation laws and failed to maintain accurate records of
revenue and expenses.
A city license is required to solicit money in public places, but the
organization has never applied for one, and the document often displayed
at the tables is a copy of its New York State incorporation receipt, the
suit said.
The group's Web site stated that it provides food and clothing to the
homeless, but Mr. Riley and Ms. Walker admitted in testimony to Mr.
Cuomo's office that the group has no such programs , the lawsuit said.
The organization does not run a shelter, soup kitchen or detox center,
and does not give money to other homeless charities, according to the
lawsuit. Mr. Riley and Ms. Walker are the only directors on the board.
"U.H.O. exploits the good intentions of people who thought that their
charitable donations were helping to fund services for the homeless,"
Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. "Instead, their donations go directly to
U.H.O.'s principals and workers, who abused the organization's
tax-exempt status to line their own pockets."
Mr. Riley, 64, and Ms. Walker, 46, did not respond to phone calls and
e-mail messages seeking comment.
The suit, filed on Monday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeks
restitution from the two and asks that the organization be shut down. It
was reported on Tuesday by The New York Post.
Criminal charges are not being pursued. A spokesman for the attorney
general said that the office believed that "the most efficient way" to
end fraud and receive restitution was to proceed with a civil case.
A table worker who declined to give his name defended Mr. Riley and Ms.
Walker. "I personally know Stephen Riley and Myra Walker for two years
now," he said. "The two of them don't drive a Rolls-Royce and they haven't
been on a vacation for years. The attorney general this time of the year
is going after the homeless and pennies?"
On Tuesday, the group's Web site, www.unitedhomeless.org, was down. But
the tables were up: On Park Avenue South, near 14th Street, George
Ortiz, 27, manned a table draped in red and topped with a five-gallon
jug that held some coins and bills. He was surprised to hear about the
lawsuit. "I only get about $25 a day," said Mr. Ortiz, who says he is
homeless. "I give them $15 and I keep $10 for myself. It's not that much
money."
Rodney Williams, 44, standing at a table on 17th Street, said he knew
nothing about the inner workings of the organization, but that he
thought the group served a legitimate purpose. "It enables me to have
some money," said Mr. Williams, who added that he uses the cash to buy
food and rent a room in Harlem. "This is for homeless people. This is
the bottom line."
The jugs, though far from overflowing, continued to receive donations.
Hector Martinez, 28, put about a dollar in change into one at Broadway
and 14th Street. "I didn't know if it was going to a group or just the
guy standing there at the table," said Mr. Martinez, a TV and film
production assistant. "I figured either way, it's going to someone."
The lawsuit comes at a critical time for homeless services
organizations, on the eve of the holiday season, when many New Yorkers
are more likely to donate.
But Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst for the nonprofit Coalition
for the Homeless, said he did not expect the allegations to hurt
donations to other groups. "We're more worried about the economy than we
would be about any blowback from this," he said.
As a nonprofit group, the United Homeless Organization is exempt from
federal income tax. It was formed in the 1980s but incorporated in 1993,
and Mr. Riley is identified in the lawsuit as a co-founder. Organization
members used to routinely solicit donations in the subway system, but
these days the tables are the heart of its operation: Up to 50 are set
up around Manhattan from Monday to Saturday, with a smaller number on
Sundays.
In 2001, Courtney Perry, identified at the time as the group's program
director, told The New York Times that aside from the $15 fee, the money
in the jugs went directly to the table workers themselves. "Most of it
goes for night-to-night housing," Mr. Perry said. Mr. Cuomo's office
said that the group did not keep records for the hundreds of thousands
of dollars in donations kept by table workers, and that although the
group has suggested the money goes toward "emergency assistance," some
of the table workers had been regularly receiving the cash for years.
The total collected each year is unknown. From 2003 to 2007, the
organization reported revenue ranging from $60,000 to $98,000 in annual
filings sent to Mr. Cuomo, though the suit said the fees collected by
Mr. Riley and Ms. Walker and the donations were "grossly underreported."
From January 2005 to August 2009, more than $173,000 in cash was
withdrawn from the group's bank account by Mr. Riley and Ms. Walker,
though it was unknown how a large portion of that money was used.
Mr. Riley told Mr. Cuomo's office that other than Social Security
disability checks and government housing assistance, he had no other
source of income and received no compensation from the United Homeless
Organization. The group's main office is Mr. Riley's apartment, near the
Bronx Zoo.
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
David Carson
>service at Mr. Riley's apartment; restaurant meals; trips to Cleveland,
>Mr. Riley's hometown; and shopping purchases from GameStop, the Home
>Shopping Network and the Web site for Weight Watchers.
I want to know which restaurants. Based on the rest of the list, I'm
guessing Denny's.
David Samuel Barr
> November 25, 2009
> Spare Change for Homeless? Cuomo Sees a Sham and Sues
> By MANNY FERNANDEZ
>
> In Manhattan, they are as common a sight as the homeless themselves: the
> United Homeless Organization's street-corner donation tables, operated
> with little more than a large plastic jug and a worker pleading for
> coins and bills for the needy.
>
> The workers, clad in aprons bearing the group's logo, are all homeless
> or formerly homeless, and the organization says that the donations help
> pay for food pantries, clothing, detox centers and other services.
> Skeptical New Yorkers who wondered over the years just where the money
> ended up wondered just as often if they were perhaps being too
> skeptical.
<mass snippage>
This is nothing new. UHO was exposed as a scam as far back as 1992
(one of the first major stories broken by the new NY1 local cable news
service). Almost every year one of the local TV stations does the same
expose--this year it was WCBS's turn--and yet somehow it's taken this
long for any law enforcement entity to take any action against UHO.
Word must be getting out to the homeless about this, since just a couple
of days ago I saw a similar street-corner installation but the UHO label
was no longer on the bottle there were attached cutouts of the logo of
City Harvest, a renowned hunger relief agency. Of course, City Harvest
doesn't collect money this way itself, and it's unlikely the individual
was a supporter trying to raise money for them. (The next day he was
still there but the City Harvest logos were gone and replaced by another
sign I couldn't read as the bus passed by.) Even if UHO gets shut down,
it would seem that the model of individuals raising money under false
colours is now well-established as its legacy.
David Carson
<dsb...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>Word must be getting out to the homeless about this, since just a couple
>of days ago I saw a similar street-corner installation but the UHO label
>was no longer on the bottle there were attached cutouts of the logo of
>City Harvest, a renowned hunger relief agency. Of course, City Harvest
>doesn't collect money this way itself, and it's unlikely the individual
>was a supporter trying to raise money for them. (The next day he was
>still there but the City Harvest logos were gone and replaced by another
>sign I couldn't read as the bus passed by.) Even if UHO gets shut down,
>it would seem that the model of individuals raising money under false
>colours is now well-established as its legacy.
I am generally wary of street beggars, and I think there are more
effective ways of dispensing aid than to hand cash to any random
scruffy-looking person holding a sign. One day, however, I made an
exception to my custom. A man approached me, showed me a business card
bearing the name of his charitable organization, and made his little
appeal to me. For whatever reason, I opened my billfold and handed him
some cash. That very evening, a local TV news station exposed that
organization as a crack house. I felt like such a naive fool.
David Carson
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