A Miami-Dade commissioner asked for an investigation of the Guardianship Program of Dade County, which receives more than $2 million annually in taxpayer funding to help care for "incapacitated" individuals.
The request Tuesday by Commissioner Eileen Higgins came the same day WLRN reported the non-profit agency had sold properties of people under its care to the same realty company over the past 12 years. That company, Express Homes, then either quickly sold the homes for profit, renovated the homes to sell later, or kept the buildings as rental property. Gains collected from the sales did not go towards the care of the program’s incapacitated clients.
"It's $2.7 million a year and I just want to make sure that our money is being used appropriately," Higgins told WLRN. "We cannot be giving almost $3 million to an organization that may or may not be operating properly or ethically."
The Guardianship Program cares for those deemed by a court to be incapacitated and who don’t have the money to afford a private guardian, and who have no friends or family willing to take care of them. The staff takes control of their assets — including vehicles and real estate — and sells them to help pay for future care and living expenses.
Higgins asked for the Miami-Dade County Office of the Inspector General to carry out the investigation of the agency and report its findings within 60 days.
"[The Guardianship Program is] being spoken about a lot relative to possible misuse of funds for transactions. I think it's important we have the inspector general take a look at this," Higgins said during Tuesday's county commission meeting.
Higgins wants county investigators to specifically probe the agency's practices and procedures relating to the sale of real property, look into its role in property transactions related to its wards, and to create a listing of all real property transactions where it was involved in the transfer or sale of its client’s or ward’s property.
Carlos McDonald, executive director of the Guardianship Program, told WLRN that the nonprofit works with multiple realty companies, and that those companies sell homes from the program at higher prices because they typically require extensive repairs and renovation. He said the program secures a court order before selling any home, as required by law.
Express Homes owner Carlos Morales, through his attorney, told WLRN that the firm helping the Guardianship Program care for their incapacitated wards.
“Morales and his company, Express Homes, are in the business of buying properties in disrepair and remodeling them,” wrote Matthew E. Ladd, Morales’s attorney, in a statement to WLRN. “Everything, EVERYTHING, was completely above board.”
Higgins said the Guardianship Program does good work, but said WLRN's and other media's reports on the agency shows that better monitoring and more scrutiny needs to be applied to the nonprofit’s real estate transactions.
The Inspector General has no obligation to respond to a commissioner’s request for an investigation.
