Description

The Commission's investigation uncovered diversion of approximately one-quarter of the public funds intended for the care of mentally disabled residents at a 10-bed facility in Queens, New York operated by Community Living Alternative (CLA), a not-for-profit corporation licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) to operate community residences. As a result of diversion of over one-half million dollars of the revenues during a five-year period by CLA's executive director and his wife who served as president of a phantom board of directors, residents of the only group home it operated lived in poor conditions without active treatment and recreation, and the home was chronically out-of-compliance with OMRDD regulations.