Group home brings fear of neighborhood in southern Miami-Dade County

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. A surveillance video shows a resident of a group moving inside a neighbor’s house. Many in the Miami-Dade County neighborhood in the south said the group home posed safety issues.

The video shows a man, who was shaking badly, knocking on the front door of a house in the vicinity of Suidwes 325th Street. Omar Chargui said his wife opened the door because she thought the man was there to deliver a package. It was a resident of the group, and he broke into their home.

My wife started screaming wildly. I’m coming out of the shower. She walks into the room and says, ‘There’s a man! There’s a man! A stranger in the house! ‘ My heart is pounding, ”said Chargui. ‘All kinds of images come to mind. I open the bedroom door. I see the man right there. ”

Chargui, a correctional officer, said he decided to grab his weapon. He said he noticed the intruder and realized he was having mental problems. The man asked Chargui to call the police. Chargui said he promised to get help for him and escorted him to the door.

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“He kept spitting and then ran away,” Chargui said.

Chargui said the man was admitted to hospital under the Baker Act, but days later he was back on the block and in the group home. Chargui later learned that among the group house residents were sexual predators and convicted criminals.

The group home, which is licensed by the Florida Agency for the Disabled, is being investigated. A representative of the agency reported that four residents live in the group home. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, two of them are registered sex offenders.

Chargui is not the only one who has told a story. Other neighbors of the group home said the residents were walking around unattended, and parents decided not to let their children play outside. Some of the neighbors said they live in fear.

According to Tyrome Burton, some neighbors were proactive and dispersed and displayed leaflets showing the background of the residents of the group home.

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“These guys would come around and break them down and be crazy, and you would see them go around looking for the flyers,” Burton said. “There are no worries in this area except the house.”

No one at the group home spoke to Local 10 News. According to records, Eartha Mays, also known as Eartha Fagan, is the owner / manager of the group home. Mays owns the company Angel Heart Support Services and she has a license for five group homes.

“I will not respond to anyone,” Mays wrote in an email.

According to a 2019 administrative complaint, the Florida Department of Children and Families found that Mays committed financial exploitation by improperly using residents’ funds. She reached a settlement in that case. According to court records, Mays is on trial for unlawful death after a resident was found shot dead at one of her other group homes in 2019.

The Miami-Dade Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources has determined that the group home meets the zoning and code requirements.