A Florida woman is facing years in prison if convicted of subletting her subsidized Bronx apartment while telling city authorities she was making as little as $24 a year.
Australia Gonzalez, 65, collected rent payments from tenants in her subsidized apartment in the Bronx from 2019 to 2024, according to the city’s Department of Investigation. She’s accused of filing affidavits stating she was unemployed, making her eligible for thousands of dollars in federal rental subsidies.
In reality, prosecutors say, she was living in balmy Hialeah, Florida just outside Miami, while collecting rent money from subletters more than 1,000 miles away. The Bronx apartment was paid for through the federal Section 8 rental assistance program that's meant for low-income residents as an alternative to homelessness, according to investigators.
Cops arrested Gonzalez in the Bronx Thursday, according to records. Prosecutors say she tricked NYCHA into overpaying her rent to the tune of more than $50,000.
“This defendant, a Section 8 recipient, obtained tens of thousands of dollars in rental subsidies to which she was not entitled, by omitting and misrepresenting to NYCHA key facts about her residency and household income, according to the charges,” Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said in a statement.
Gonzalez collected rent from tenants in her Bronx apartment starting in November 2019, with one tenant paying $800 a month while another who moved there in April 2022 and stayed until November 2023 paid between $750 and $800 a month, prosecutors allege in court records.
Gonzalez pleaded not guilty in Bronx Criminal Court on Thursday to a slew of charges including filing a false instrument and grand larceny, according to court records. She was released without bail and is due back in court in May.
A lawyer for Gonzalez declined to comment on the allegations.
