new york citys own inspector general ripped a controversial city program intended to help curb homelessness after a probe showed it left needy families living in squalor under the roofs of unscrupulous landlords the citys department of investigation released on thursday its findings from a probe into new yorks special onetime assistance program or sota launched by mayor bill de blasios administration in 2017 the report comes just days after newark new jersey officials filed a federal lawsuit accusing de blasio and his department of homeless services commissioner steven banks of turning their community into a homeless dumping ground the sota program was designed to help new york families break the cycle of homelessness and set them on a path to achieve stable affordable housing margaret garnett commissioner of the department of investigation said in a statement on thursday instead because of a lack of proper oversight and poorly designed paperwork our investigation showed some sota families placed in housing outside of new york city were living in squalor under the roofs of unscrupulous landlords who collected tens of thousands of dollars in rental payments upfront from the city to provide these subpar conditions with little risk of accountability for their actions the doi began its investigation in february among its findings were a landlord who owned multiple properties in newark leased under the sota program failing to fix a defective boiler resulting in maximum apartment temperatures of 43 degrees another property housed a family in an illegal attic crawling with vermin and a third property had no heat and dysfunctional electrical outlets the findings appear to support allegations made in the lawsuit filed on monday at the behest of newark mayor ras baraka alleging de blasio and banks orchestrated an illconceived surreptitious program that has become a public nuisance new jersey mayor ras baraka listens as new jersey governor phil murphy speaks about the citys ongoing water crisis during a press conference held at the newark healt show more rick loomisgetty images isaac mcginn a spokesman for the new york city department of social services said the doi investigation happened after the city referred a bad landlord to the department we agree on the need to continually strengthen our programs which is why we made addressing these very points our top priority over a year ago during the first twelve months of the program mcginn said in a statement thursday to abc news we have since implemented comprehensive apartment review standards and we provide continual training to staff regarding the program its enhancements and the steps they are required to take to ensure clients are connected to safe apartments as they get back on their feet more for cory booker water crisis awakens ghosts of past newark water scandal the probe found landlords and brokers have been taking advantage of the program collecting upfront fullyears rental payments and a 15 brokers fee despite leaving tenants in dilapidated housing according to the report the average annual sota apartment lease