NYC paid to house dead AIDS patients

NEW YORK, July 5 (UPI) -- New York City paid hotels more than $180,000 to house AIDS patients who had died, according to a city audit.

The Daily News reports that the payments for the dead were part of a total of more than $2 million in dubious payments uncovered by Controller William Thompson. In 2003, the city's Human Resources Administration paid $34 million to single-room-occupancy hotels for housing homeless people with AIDS.

Thompson discovered that $1 million was paid hotels for clients not properly registered and $456,000 for clients no longer staying in hotels. There was also $118,000 in duplicate payments and $20,300 paid a hotel owner who had submitted a bill for $2,300.

In some cases, the city continued to pay for the dead for more than a year afterwards. One hotel continued to submit bills for 18 months to two years after three of its residents died.