This kind of “public housing” comes with a deluxe robe, heated bathroom floors, free Wi-Fi and a mini-fridge.
The president of the city’s Drew-Hamilton housing project in Harlem treated herself and 24 other tenants to a getaway at a ritzy Poconos resort last weekend — costing taxpayers at least $15,000, The Post has learned.
Calling it a “women’s empowerment retreat,” the tenants stayed two nights at the lakeside Bushkill Inn and Conference Center with the tab paid by the New York City Housing Authority.
NYCHA paid $588 a night for single rooms, $710 for doubles.
The guests also enjoyed three gourmet buffets a day, plus snacks, costing a total $176 per person, or $4,400 for food alone.
The event featured a Saturday night dinner-dance with a DJ. Everyone got a prepaid ticket for one cocktail, a participant said.
Other costs included bus transportation and a fee for Share for Life, a nonprofit that put on a “women’s empowerment” workshop. Founder Janine Saulsbury, who attended with three staff members, would not disclose the fee but said NYCHA has hired her group for other workshops and retreats.
The Housing Authority approved the trip, said spokeswoman Sheila Stainback.
She would not say how much it spent but said the money came from federal Housing and Urban Development funds earmarked for “tenant-participation activities.”
She called the tenant trip “a proper use” of taxpayer funds.
But HUD guidelines do not address travel, hotels and catered meals. Rules allow payment of “reasonable refreshment and light-snack costs” for meetings. Payment for entertainment and booze is prohibited.
The taxpayer-provided tenant funds — $15 for each occupied unit a year, plus $10 for NYCHA to oversee their use — are meant for programs such as child care, drug-abuse and violence prevention, health and nutrition, financial literacy, and job training. With some 1,200 apartments, Drew-Hamilton’s yearly tenant funds total about $18,000.
The trip was organized by tenant association president Barbara G. Barber, 73, who attended with 24 women and some “elders,” she said.
“I took them away from anything that would distract them because Drew-Hamilton is in terrible shape,” Barber said.