guardianship

In a memo, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava called for new safeguards over the Guardianship Program of Dade County, as well as a review of its staffing and leadership, after an audit report found program employees violated state law.

Miami-Dade's Inspector General found that the Guardianship Program of Dade County — a county-funded nonprofit meant to care for wards deemed “incapacitated” by the courts — had multiple conflicts within its structure relating to property sales. The report comes more than a year after WLRN reported that the agency was repeatedly selling properties to a small network of buyers who would then sell them for big profits.

With Miami−Dade officials continuing their investigation of the Guardianship Program of Dade County and its real estate transactions, WLRN has learned that two companies — linked to Miami City Attorney Victoria Méndez — purchased and sold for hefty gains nearly three dozen properties that were once owned by the nonprofit, through a network of businesses or individuals.

Following WLRN’s reporting on the Guardianship Program’s sale of its wards' properties to Express Homes — owned by Miami City Attorney Victoria Méndez' husband Carlos Morales — officials launched an investigation. Now we have found Gallego Homes, owned by Méndez' mother Margarita, also made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling homes purchased from the nonprofit.

The county's actions follows a WLRN report that found the Guardianship Program sold properties of people under its care since 2011 to the same realty company.

The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing announcement comes the same month WLRN and Bloomberg Law published stories showing a lack of oversight and accountability in guardianship programs

She directed the county to pause grant funding for the Guardianship Program of Dade County pending an independent investigation of its real estate transactions.

Commissioner Eileen Higgins asked the county Inspector General to investigate the non-profit agency following WLRN's reporting on its selling of clients' real estate properties

WLRN's investigative team joins host Carlos Frías to discuss their latest report, which looks into a government-funded nonprofit that was put in place to help care for people who can’t take care of themselves. And sometimes sell their homes to cover the cost of their care. Reporters Joshua Ceballos and Danny Rivero found blurred lines in the program.Plus, we’ll hear a radio documentary about how developers and cities clash over how to restore the hundreds of Art Deco buildings on Miami Beach.

Florida’s Guardian ad Litem program is asking the legislature for funding to reimburse its volunteers, who travel hundreds of miles for the abused and...

Florida’s Guardian ad Litem program may have thousands of volunteers, but agency officials say they need more male role models, who can advocate on...