The Nation - News from June 9, 1989

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will reopen a probe into an alleged scheme to rig the awarding of federally subsidized housing in Island Park, N.Y., HUD Secretary Jack Kemp announced. At the center of the controversy is HUD Region II administrator Geraldine McGann, whose son, Daniel McGann, was among those chosen to purchase a $44,500 house in the program. A cousin of Republican Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato, a longtime resident of Island Park, also benefited from the program by buying a home for $40,000, according to a HUD audit. The new investigation was triggered by a report in the New York Times that officials in Island Park had distributed federally subsidized homes to politically connected people and excluded blacks between 1980 and 1984.