Charles Rangel - Misdeeds concerning childhood home

Summary

Congressman Rangel has been involved in a number of deals concerning the house he grew up in, which is located in Harlem.  The deals raise issues of truthfulness in lending and conflict of interest concerns.

 

Renovation loan

On April 9, 1965, Charles Rangel took out a low-interest mortgage to renovate his childhood home - a row house on West 132nd Street that he had just inherited from his grandfather. The $39,350 loan came from a New York City program to develop low-income housing. Rangel and his sister Frances were to use the money to turn the family home in Central Harlem, which Rangel affectionately called Buckingham Palace, into six apartments.

In his first run for Congress in 1970, an opponent in the Democratic primary accused him of violating the conditions of the mortgage because he was living in one of the apartments that were supposed to be rented only to poor people, "If Charlie Rangel is low income, then we have a new crisis in this country," Jesse Gray, a longtime housing activist, charged.

 

Failure to disclose rental income

According to federal financial disclosure forms, Congressman Rangel reported no rental income from 1993 to 2000 on the six-unit building which he previously renovated. One current tenant told The Post she had lived at the building for 20 years -- and paid rent during that period. Another said her former boyfriend called 74 W. 132nd St. home for many years, paying about $500 a month in rent.  During the 8 years that Congressman Rangel claimed no income from the property, the Post found 4 residents.  The Congressman's nephew still lives at the address. 

• In 1923, Rangel's grandfather bought the house
• In 1965, Rangel took out the loan described above to renovate the house
• In 1973, Rangel's sister transferred the property to his wife's name for $10,000
• In 1987, he claimed the building brought in between $5,001 and $15,000
• In 1991, he amended his 1990 form to say the property produced a loss
• Less than a month later, he said the gross rent was between $15,000 and $50,000, the same amount he reported in 2002
• In 1993 and 1994, he failed to enter anything about the property's income
• From 1995 to 2000, he checked a box to show he earned no income
• In 2001, Rangel claimed income for the building, reporting between $2,501 and $5,000 a year.
• He did the same in 2002 and 2003, then amended the reports to show income between $15,000 and $50,000.
• In 2004 Rangel sold the row house to the First AME Church Bethel for $410,000
• Rangel left open three building code violations for failing to file an annual boiler inspection report. He owes $1,500, according to the city’s Department of Buildings.
• In 2009, Rangel filed amended disclosure forms showing that in 2004 he failed to reveal between $500,001 and $1 million in capital gains and rent from the building.

Even if expenses on the building brought his take to nothing in certain years, he was required to report the gross rent.

 

Conflict of Interest 

in 2009, Rangel wrote a letter supporting the church’s application for low-income housing tax credits in order to renovate an apartment building on the same street. A source close to the Ethics Committee says Rangel’s support of tax credits for the church’s proposed $9 million renovation amounts to a conflict of interest since the Congressman had a business relationship with the pastor, the Rev. Henry Belin III.

 

References

[1] Website: Fox News Article: The Case Against Charlie Rangel Author: NA Accessed on: 05/03/2010

[2] Website: The New York Post Article: The case against Charlie Rangel Author: ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN Accessed on: 05/03/2010

[3] Website: New York Post Article: Charlie in rental di$order Author: ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN Accessed on: 05/03/2010

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