Metro

De Blasio administration chronically late paying for homeless services

The de Blasio administration is a deadbeat when it comes to paying homeless-services providers — even as it seeks help from those nonprofits to contain a crisis that now costs city taxpayers more than $2 billion a year.

A Post analysis found that payments were late on nearly 80 percent of the contracts awarded by the Department of Homeless Services since 2013.

The delays sometimes stretched for more than a year, forcing charities to take out loans while waiting for DHS to process the paperwork they needed to get paid.

Other city agencies had nothing to boast about, either, with an average late payment rate of 59 percent.

But Homeless Services’ dawdling meant social workers weren’t hired quickly to staff shelters, temporarily costing employees of one nonprofit their health care benefits and leaving other charities so frustrated they are considering not doing business with the city, sources told The Post.

“Nonprofit groups struggle every day to try to meet payroll and serve the most vulnerable New Yorkers, and when the city hangs them out to dry, they’re forced to turn to banks and pay interest using money that would otherwise go to direct services,” a source close to several nonprofits said.

In a statement, a DHS spokesman acknowledged the agency’s contracting problems and said it was working to fix them.

“We’ve invested more than a quarter-billion new dollars annually in our shelter provider partners to address decades of disinvestment and reform outdated rates they were paid for many years,” spokesman Isaac McGinn said.

“We have also been working closely with these vital partners to resolve inherited contracting backlogs . . . and address any outstanding challenges they may have.”

The DHS budget is expected to reach $2.06 billion in fiscal 2019, which starts on July 1.

Under city regulations, contractors aren’t paid until an agency submits documentation to the comptroller’s office.

More than three-quarters of the Homeless Services contracts — 78 percent — weren’t registered on or before the start date, according to a Post analysis of the nearly 900 contracts issued since 2013.

Nearly half — 43 percent — remained unregistered more than 100 days after work began. Some contracts took more than a year to get registered. The bulk were with nonprofits.

“Some organizations are not bidding on new contracts, their boards are becoming more risk adverse,” said Catherine Trapani, executive director of the Homeless Services United, a coalition that advocates for homeless services nonprofits in New York City.

“Some are considering whether they want to continue their relationships with New York City.”

The delays meant that weekly DHS conference calls last year about first lady Chirlane McCray’s $850 million ThriveNYC program often focused on the slow hiring of social workers for shelters — while the agency took months to process the contracts paying for those positions, according to Trapani.

In another case, a months-long holdup caused such a cash crunch at one nonprofit that its employees lost their health coverage until City Hall intervened with an emergency loan, she said.

The Post analyzed more than 59,000 contracts registered with the comptroller since 2013 to calculate its figures.

In a separate report, Comptroller Scott Stringer confirmed The Post’s findings.

The comptroller’s auditors said 81 percent of all new and renewed contracts were registered late during the 2017 budget year — with 100 percent of Homeless Services’ social services contracts submitted after the start date.

Women In Need, which provides housing for homeless women and kids, waited at least three months to get paid on 21 contracts currently worth $59.2 million, The Post’s analysis found.

“It’s been a historic problem that’s very, very significant,” said Christine Quinn, the former speaker of the City Council, who now runs the charity.

“We’re very lucky at WIN because we’re larger, we’re about a $90 million budget, but I don’t know how the smaller groups do it.”