Non profits have become very profitable

'Nonprofit' dorm execs gouge students

By ANNIE KARNI

New York City college students are getting a lesson in gouging from the nonprofit that rents them their dorm rooms.

Universities including NYU, Pace and CUNY are steering their students to residential units operated by Educational Housing Services, a charity that claims to offer student housing — 4,300 units in six buildings — at “the lowest cost possible.”

But the tax-exempt group — which pays CEO George Scott $718,032 a year and steered $2.9 million in 2010 to his wife’s company for providing “Internet, phone and cable services” — charges starving students above-market rents for below-market quarters.

One EHS dorm downtown, at 55 John St., is reserved for Pace students. The other buildings — three in Brooklyn and two in Manhattan — are available to any student or intern studying at an accredited college or university or working in New York City.

EHS is just a middleman. It rents buildings from landlords, then flips them for students through its often-exclusive arrangement with colleges. The group pulled in $45.4 million in revenue in 2010.

Students shell out as much as $3,400 a month for a single bedroom at 55 John St. for the summer months. At the converted St. George Hotel in Brooklyn Heights, a shared bedroom for the spring semester costs students $2,100 a month — a total of $4,200. A triple there costs $1,833 per person for the spring semester, bringing in a total of $5,499 rent for the room.

The small dorm rooms — about 200 square feet for a double — have shared closets and bathrooms. The buildings have communal “food-warming areas” instead of kitchens.

The dorm rents are much higher than the $1,700 going rate for a studio or $2,000 for a one-bedroom in the neighborhood, according to brokers.

By comparison, a student who lives in a dorm on the NYU campus can pay as low as $769 a month to live in a triple at 35 Fifth Ave. in Greenwich Village.

“I paid $8,000 for the semester to live in a rat hole with three people in a room,” said former Marine Scott Florio, 24, a marketing student at Pace who lived at 55 John St. until he wised up and rented a $1,400-a-month one-bedroom in Jersey City.

EHS executives defended the rents, arguing that their buildings offer security and no broker’s fees or security deposits. The buildings have fitness facilities, TVs in the bedrooms, and students don’t pay utilities.

While the students are squeezed, EHS execs are well-compensated. In October, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman served EHS with a subpoena demanding documents related to the compensation of its executives, The Post has learned.

Besides Scott’s huge payout, three execs took home six-figure salaries.

Non profits don't pay income tax.