Miami Herald - June 18, 2003
Sonji Jacobs,sajacobs@herald.com

They also have been a source of embarrassment for the landlord -- the city of Fort Lauderdale -- which has been hit with repeated code violations for having piles of trash and debris on the properties.

Now, Fort Lauderdale city leaders are likely to scrap their plans to fix up the houses and sell them to Lauderdale Lakes.

Lauderdale Lakes city and community leaders would demolish the homes and use the land for park space because it is near a residential neighborhood and three public schools: Oriole Elementary, Lauderdale Lakes Middle and Boyd Anderson High School.

"We've done two major public studies," said J. Gary Rogers, administrator of Lauderdale Lakes community redevelopment agency.

"The idea of taking out this section of residential properties and making it green space came forward again from the community."

Fort Lauderdale leaders said Tuesday they are open to selling the properties if the city can recoup its $344,000 investment and place the housing for HIV/AIDS patients somewhere else in Broward. If not, the city will be forced to reach in its own purse to pay back the federal government.

By administering federal funds, the city of Fort Lauderdale assists thousands of families living with HIV/AIDS with housing throughout Broward.

More than 700 families receive rental-vouchers to help with housing costs, said Michael McGuigan, who administers the federal funds for Fort Lauderdale.

An additional 900 families get help with emergency short-term rental or mortgage assistance. This year, the city received a $6.96 million federal grant for those purposes, McGuigan said.

So far, Fort Lauderdale has invested $338,556 in federal money in the Lauderdale Lakes properties. An additional $5,474 came from the city's general fund.

Think Life, a non-profit agency founded 13 years ago, began managing the three properties as a residence for people living with HIV/AIDS in the mid-1990s.

The agency eventually fell apart because of financial mismanagement. Fort Lauderdale acquired the homes.

By April 2001, the properties had racked up more than $25,000 in liens for landscaping code violations as well as trash and debris on the property. Much of the violations occured when the property was being managed by Think Life, so Lauderdale Lakes officials cut their neighboring city a break and reduced the fee to $5,000.

Fort Lauderdale city officials spent several thousand dollars on a new fence, sod and a sprinkler system to keep the properties in decent condition while city officials figured out what to do next.

In July 2002, the Fort Lauderdale Housing Authority won a competitive bid to take control of the properties and make them inhabitable, once again, for people with HIV/AIDS. That process, however, took longer than city leaders expected.

The properties have remained vacant, and Fort Lauderdale has been cited with violations for trash and debris. Lauderdale Lakes officials say they have had to board up the properties several times to keep out vagrants.

If the deal with Lauderdale Lakes falls through, the Fort Lauderdale Housing Authority could renovate the properties for HIV/AIDS patients as originally intended or put them out to bid for other potential buyers.

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