Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - December 28, 2007
The second outrage is all too familiar: the squandering of public money earmarked to house poor people. Miami and Miami-Dade County fell down on the job. They gave money to MOVERS without adequate oversight, and the results stink. The failure is especially disturbing given this area's large and growing HIV/AIDS population.
More than $3 million have been invested in two apartment buildings for HIV/AIDS tenants with little positive results:
* Sugar Hill apartments in Liberty City were built with $2.8 million in federal AIDS housing funds. MOVERS mismanaged the building, then sold it to a private landlord who evicted needy tenants. Selling the property, which was bought with taxes, generated a $1.3 million profit for MOVERS. How is this possible?
* Sugar Hill's new owner says he is not bound by a deed restriction or contract to house HIV/AIDS tenants or to offer affordable rents, even though such conditions are required by federal law for at least four more years. Miami-Dade says he is and seeks a remedy. The city should, too.
* Another property, Life Quest apartments, is condemned and boarded up. Since 2005, Miami has given MOVERS $181,000 to renovate the apartments. MOVERS, in turn, has spent $114,000 of the money on payroll and other expenses unrelated to the renovation. What is the city of Miami waiting for? Miami should take back the project and misspent funds.
MOVERS' board said that it sold Sugar Hill because of a ''severe financial crisis'', and that neither the city nor county objected to the sale. Profits were then put into other services for HIV/AIDS clients. This still doesn't excuse MOVERS from allowing Sugar Hill tenants to be dumped on the street. MOVERS could have tried to place them elsewhere.
Such disregard and mismanagement is evidence that MOVERS remains troubled. Reform failed even after Miami-Dade and the Empowerment Trust gave the agency a $900,000 grant and installed new leadership in 2004.
Led by businessman William Perry and lobbyist Dewey Knight III, the new board put in new management and financial controls. The measures didn't work. The city and county shouldn't let MOVERS waste any more public funds.
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