Group home brings fear to the South Miami-Dade County neighborhood

COUNTY MIAMI-DADE, Fla. – Security video shows a resident of a group home making his way to a neighbor’s house. Many in the Miami-Dade County area of ​​the south said the group home is raising security concerns.

The video shows a man, who was shaking violently, knocking on the front door of a house near Southwest 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 a group home, and he broke into their home.

My wife starts screaming furiously. I’m getting out of the shower. She bursts into the room and says, “There is a man! There is a man! A stranger in the house! “My heart beats,” said Chargui. “All kinds of images come through my mind. I open the bedroom door. I see the man there. “

Chargui, a correction officer, said he decided to grab his weapon. He said he had observed the intruder and realized he had mental health problems. The man asked Chargui to call the police. Chargui said he promised to seek help and escorted him to the door.

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

Chargui said the man was hospitalized under the Baker Act, but days later he was back in the group home. Chargui later discovered that there were sexual predators and convicted criminals among the residents of the group home.

The group home, which is licensed by the state of Florida’s Office for Persons with Disabilities, is under investigation. A representative of the service 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 isn’t the only one with a story to tell. Other neighbors from the group home said residents are walking around unsupervised, so parents have decided not to let their children play outside. Some neighbors said they live in fear.

Tyrome Burton said some neighbors were proactive and distributed and showed flyers with the background of the residents of the group home.

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“These guys came over to tear them down, and got mad, and you’d see them come and look for the flyers,” Burton said. “There are no worries in this neighborhood, except that house.”

No one in the group home spoke to Local 10 News. The records show that Eartha Mays, also known as Eartha Fagan, is the owner / operator of the group home. Mays owns the Angel Heart Support Services company and has a permit 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 discovered that Mays had committed financial exploitation by misusing residents’ money. She has reached a settlement in that case. Court records show Mays is facing a tort death lawsuit after a resident of one of her other group homes was shot in 2019.

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