It turns out that Kofi Annan and members of his family have for years been occupying a low-rent, tax-payer subsidized apartment intended for low-income New Yorkers on Roosevelt Island in the East River.
Claudia Rosett reports in the New York Sun:
This kind of apartment, part of a state-regulated housing development program called Mitchell-Lama, is subject to strict eligibility requirements, involving family size and financial ceilings on combined family income. There is also a requirement that the leaseholder make continuous use of the apartment as a primary residence.
As UN Secretary-General, Annan has lived in an elaborate apartment on posh Sutton Place – provided to him rent-free by the UN, an organization most heavily funded by American taxpayers. Evidently, he’s “loaned” the Roosevelt Island apartment to his brother Kobina – who currently serves as Ghana’s ambassador to Morocco. How do you get from Rabat to Roosevelt Island? Take the A Train?
Can you imagine the press and congressional reaction had John Bolton had an arrangement such as this?