During a budget hearing at the City Council Friday, DCAS Commissioner Lisette Camilo said the city removes about four deed restrictions a year and that “13 to 14” already in the pipeline were put on hold following a suspicious deal on the Lower East Side, where a developer made a $72 million profit when a deed restriction was quietly lifted.
Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan) told The Post afterward that he had to learn about the Harlem deal from the press and couldn’t get answers from the administration.
“The city has to take ownership of what is happening,” he said. “I am deeply troubled that there was no budget transparency in this process.”
Camilo said her agency would surrender its deed-restriction records for the past five years to the City Council for review.