City Teacher Charged With Section 8 Fraud

A New York City teacher was arrested yesterday and faces charges that she stole almost $40,000 in illegal housing subsidies.

Monique Ellis, 39, is a special education teacher at P.S. 180 in Brooklyn. According to the city's Department of Investigation, she lied about her annual income between 2003 and 2007, allowing her to steal $39,968 from the New York City Housing Development Corp.

During that period, Ms. Ellis was living in a building affiliated with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 housing subsidy program, according to a report from the DOI. The report said Ms. Ellis reported her annual income as being between $5,200 and $16,445, when in reality she was making between $43,350 and $55,780 every year.

If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in federal prison.

Ms. Ellis is the third city employee this summer to be charged with defrauding the Section 8 program. In June, another teacher was charged with stealing $27,000, and in August, a sanitation worker was charged with stealing $12,000.