Miami Herald - December 22, 2007
Scott Hiaasen, shiaasen@MiamiHerald.com

The apartments at Sugar Hill were built for people like Charles Hollis -- people with HIV and AIDS, people with no other place to go.

For more than two years, Hollis lived at the Liberty City complex owned by MOVERS Inc., a nonprofit HIV/AIDS service agency. Then came the eviction notice, the demand for $6,300 in back rent, and the startling news that MOVERS had sold the apartments -- leaving Hollis and other clients behind.

His clothes and other belongings were tossed outside his apartment in the rain, he said. Vandals tore at his furniture "like the buzzards in the desert." Hollis -- who thought MOVERS had secured government vouchers for his rent -- ended up sleeping on a bus bench on Biscayne Boulevard.

"I lost everything I owned," said Hollis, 51, a former professional musician who now lives on Social Security.

The orange two-story complex where he once lived was built with millions in public dollars for one purpose: to house poor people with the virus and disease. Yet MOVERS sold the buildings to a private company at a $1.3 million profit -- despite a federal law that says the apartments must be devoted to AIDS housing for at least another four years.

Over the past 18 years, MOVERS has emerged as one of the most well-known local agencies of its kind, providing crucial services -- medical care, counseling and housing -- in a region with one of the largest HIV/AIDS populations in the country.

But a Miami Herald investigation shows that while MOVERS was receiving tax dollars from local government leaders, it squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars on failed projects and questionable billings -- while stranding some of the people it was meant to serve.

The findings come just three years after MOVERS pledged to get back on track with a new management team and board after government auditors discovered more than $500,000 in dubious cash withdrawals and questionable entertainment expenses -- including alcohol, movie tickets and a swimsuit -- paid for with public dollars.

A review of hundreds of local government records, court documents and interviews shows that problems have persisted at the agency long touted as a safety net for some of the county's poorest and most vulnerable residents:

ò MOVERS cashed rent payments for dead and missing Sugar Hill residents for more than a year. The city of Miami demanded a repayment of more than $36,000.

ò The agency failed to prove its clients were qualified to receive thousands of dollars in housing assistance, prompting the city to cancel a contract and relocate more than a dozen Sugar Hill residents.

ò MOVERS spent $181,000 intended to renovate apartments in North Miami, but the work was not completed, and the buildings have been condemned as uninhabitable.

ò One former Sugar Hill resident told The Miami Herald and a Miami official that MOVERS altered her medical records so she could qualify for housing subsidies. A former agency staffer raised the same allegations in a 2006 letter to Miami-Dade County. MOVERS has denied altering records.

The MOVERS real-estate deals have recently drawn the scrutiny of the Miami-Dade state attorney's office, which has demanded eight boxes of records from the city of Miami on Sugar Hill and the other apartments, records show. Prosecutors would not discuss the nature of their probe.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which financed the Sugar Hill complex, was unaware of the sale until informed by The Miami Herald. Any sale of the property should have first been approved by HUD, said Armando Fana, HUD's field office director in Miami. He said his office will now investigate.

In a written response to questions from The Miami Herald, MOVERS executive director Connie West attributed the recent problems to a "strained relationship" with city officials. She said the city imposed confusing rules for its contracts, and neither the city or county objected to the Sugar Hill sale.

West said MOVERS sold the apartments because they were too costly to run and that MOVERS used the profits from the $1.8 million deal to pay for more medical and social services for people with HIV and AIDS -- after paying off loans.

But among those loans was a $550,000 Miami-Dade County mortgage the agency used to buy the apartments with the promise to house HIV/AIDS patients.

Several of the tenants interviewed by The Miami Herald say they were never warned about the May 9 sale or about the eviction notices posted by the new owners eight days later.

"I cried and cried," recalled Jacqueline Almentero, a single mother of four who said she thought MOVERS was receiving subsidies for her rent. "I prayed about it and asked God not to let us live out on the streets someplace."

Citing medical-privacy laws, West would not comment on individual clients.

FEDERAL MONEY FLOWS

Since AIDS exploded into a public-health crisis in the 1980s, the federal government has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to local governments to provide medicine, housing and critical services to the growing number of people with the virus.

Miami-Dade County, which ranks third in the nation in HIV and AIDS cases, receives more than $20 million a year in federal funds to provide medical care. For poor people suffering from the disease, housing remains one of the most pressing needs, with an estimated 5,000 in need of assistance.

To deal with the crush of people seeking help, grass-roots agencies emerged to deliver the aid -- with MOVERS becoming one of the largest, focusing on minorities in some of the county's poorest neighborhoods.

MOVERS runs a Liberty City clinic, providing case management and counseling for more than 400 clients under an $874,000 county contract.

But as the agency has expanded over the years, it was also has compiled a troubling record of financial problems.

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found the agency routinely failed to document medical services billed to the county, while a state audit found that MOVERS' finances lurched along on questionable loans to and from its own employees. A county audit cited the agency for mismanagement.

At the time, MOVERS was so broke it couldn't pay its employees, county records show. To stay afloat, MOVERS needed $900,000 from the county and the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust.

NEW LEADERSHIP

With promises to reform the agency, a new board took over, led by William Perry, a politically connected businessman on the county's Tourist Development Council, and Dewey Knight III, a lobbyist and campaign advisor to County Commissioner Dorrin Rolle. They drafted new financial controls and hired a new management team.

But over the past three years, failed projects and misspending have continued -- with the agency no longer providing one of its most important services: housing.

Much of the problems center on two apartment complexes acquired by the agency through tax dollar loans and grants.

Using a county loan, MOVERS paid $425,000 in 2003 for the Sugar Hill apartments near Miami Northwestern Senior High School to house two dozen people with HIV and AIDS and their families.

The apartments were originally built by another nonprofit with money from the city of Miami through a federal program called Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, or HOPWA. The same program also paid the rents for most of the Sugar Hill residents.

PROBLEMS WITH CITY

Miami officials had problems with MOVERS almost from the start. They repeatedly criticized the agency for failing to verify that its tenants qualified for the rent vouchers.

In 2005, the city found that MOVERS was cashing rent checks for five dead or missing Sugar Hill residents. The city unwittingly paid the rent for one dead resident for 17 months. The total amount of overbilling: $36,478, records show.

More troubling allegations emerged in June 2006, when a former MOVERS case worker, Devon Harrington, accused agency administrators of fraud and mismanagement in a letter to county officials. Among the allegations: a tenant's medical and financial records were altered, and a former director tried to sell donated furniture.

MOVERS attorney Marc Douthit said he found no evidence of fraud after investigating the claims with a retired FBI agent, according to a report submitted to the county. MOVERS cast Harrington as a disgruntled ex-employee.

But Miami officials continued to investigate. Two months later, 30-year-old Tameka Thomas told a city investigator that MOVERS staffers disguised her income and altered her medical records so she could qualify for housing vouchers. Thomas said the same in a recent interview with The Miami Herald.

"They had me in the computer as having AIDS and I didn't," she said. Under city rules, only those who have the AIDS disease can receive housing vouchers. Thomas said she is HIV-positive but does not have AIDS.

Thomas also told The Miami Herald and the city that MOVERS staffers tried to discourage her from coming forward. MOVERS officials would not discuss Thomas' case.

Finally, the city -- which subsidized the rent of 15 Sugar Hill tenants -- canceled its contract with MOVERS in November 2006. The reason: poor performance.

Faced with "significant funding cuts," MOVERS decided to sell the buildings last year, alerting County Manager George Burgess in a letter from Perry, the agency's board president.

Under federal law, the apartments were supposed to be set aside for HIV/AIDS residents for at least 10 years because they were built with $2.8 million from a federal AIDS housing program. But neither the city nor the county, which issued the original grants, placed any restrictions on the apartments to enforce this law.

HUD also was supposed to approve any sale of the property -- but HUD was not told about the sale. If HUD deems the sale inappropriate, the agency could demand reimbursement from the city for as much as $1.8 million, Fana said.

The county has a contract with MOVERS limiting rents at Sugar Hill to keep the units affordable for another 25 years. But the new landlord, Nicolas Quijano, says that doesn't apply to him.

"What do I have to do with the county? It's not my business. There's no restrictions on the deed," Quijano said.

Quijano said he took over MOVERS' rent ledgers when he bought the building. "I had to evict everybody. Nobody was paying the rent," he said.

`DISHEARTENING'

MOVERS continues to receive money from Miami-Dade County to cover medical services and operating costs. West said she was unaware of the state attorney's office investigation into the agency's dealings.

"Our number one priority is and will continue to be the hundreds of clients that we serve," she wrote.

Ray Louis, Miami's HOPWA administrator, said he found MOVERS' handling of the Sugar Hill apartments "disheartening," saying the agency made the mistake of accepting tenants before they were approved for housing vouchers.

"It's unfortunate that these things happened to these people," he said of those evicted.

For weeks after he was evicted, Hollis said he lived on the streets, his clothes in a handcart. Almentero crowded her four children into a one-bedroom apartment shared with a friend.

After MOVERS sold Sugar Hill, Almentero said, "we weren't their concern anymore."

Hollis finally moved into a house owned by his ex-wife and is now on a waiting list to qualify for housing vouchers that he thought he had all along.

He's number 413 on the list -- with 154 people in front of him.

"We had nothing to do with what MOVERS did as far as the paperwork. Why should we have suffered?" Hollis said. "I want to see them answer for what they've done."

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