This socialist failed miserably at capitalism.
NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams recently lost a two-family home he owned in Brooklyn to Bank of America after racking up nearly $1 million in debt over 15 years by refusing to pay his mortgage, The Post has learned.
He took the loan on the property to help bankroll a business venture that capsized.
A state judge in January sided with the bank by issuing a “final judgment of foreclosure” on the deadbeat’s property at 1392 E. 98th St. in Canarsie. Williams failed to make payments on a $389,600 mortgage he took out on the house in 2006 to finance a vegan sandwich shop in Park Slope, court records show.
Williams – who earns $184,800 annually as public advocate and thousands of additional dollars renting the home – stopped making the $1,344 monthly payments in 2010, according to court records.
He was slapped with a foreclosure action four years later by Bank of America, which took over the loan when it bought original lender Countrywide Financial amid the subprime mortgage meltdown.
A court-appointed referee calculated Williams’ mortgage debt — including interest and penalties — had soared to $784,927.13 as of May 2023, according to legal papers.
Williams appealed the decision but lost, and the house was listed for sale through a foreclosure auction last month. The property reverted back to Bank of America ownership after not a single bidder offered a price exceeding the debt owed, which is now up to $944,582, according to auction.com.
Councilman Robert Holden, a moderate Queens Democrat and longtime Williams critic, said the public advocate’s inability to pay his debts speaks volumes.
“Jumaane Williams has been paid a six-figure taxpayer-funded salary for years, yet he still couldn’t pay his bills or keep his home,” he said. “Like many in government, he can’t even manage his own life — so why should anyone trust him to manage the people’s business?”
Williams and his mother purchased the home in 2005 for $370,500, according to records. He secured full ownership of the property a year later.
Williams has long blamed his financial woes on the terms of his loan and tenants who didn’t pay their rent. His Earth Tonez Cafe in Park Slope closed in 2008.
Williams’ housing headaches fly in the face of his public career as a tenant advocate, as the public advocate’s office regularly releases a list of the city’s worst landlords.
“Like the very slumlords he put on his ‘Worst Landlords Watchlist,’ Jumaane Williams pocketed rent from tenants, pulled in a six-figure salary, and still failed to make basic mortgage payments on his investment property,” said said Arvind Sooknanan, a spokesperson for Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, a Queens Dem challenging Williams for public advocate in the next month’s primary.
“This isn’t just bad judgment — it’s pure hypocrisy.”
The public advocate’s Canarsie money pit has been repeatedly fined by the Department of Sanitation, including Williams being socked with a $300 fine in 2020 for keeping a “dirty area” outside, records show. The fine grew to $401 with penalties before it was settled by Williams paying only $267.
He also had a history of being behind on paying his water bills – which ballooned to more than $10,000 in debt in 2022 but records show have since been paid off.
The Public Advocate himself doesn’t live anywhere near his Canarsie property. Instead, he has taken up residence with his lobbyist wife and stepdaughter in a townhouse at the Fort Hamilton US Army Garrison in Bay Ridge.
“As has been extensively covered for a decade, the Public Advocate has an investment property in the foreclosure process, in part due to exploitative banking practices,” said Williams’ spokesman William Gerlich.
“Many New Yorkers are facing much worse today – losing their family homes as a result of the affordability crisis and predatory practices – which is why the Public Advocate constantly stands up to the mayor’s rent hikes and the bad actors driving families out of our city.”
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