\tClick here\t<\/a>\tfor a better experience on our website.<\/p>\n \tIllustration by Neil Nakahodo<\/p>\n
When a series of tragic failures at New Era Community Health Center left scores of the county\u2019s weakest, poorest and most erratic residents in danger, Florida health inspectors took the unusual step of threatening to shut down the home.<\/p>\n
One woman died after suffering a seizure, falling and receiving no medical care for hours. Another was housed in a second-story room despite having attempted suicide, health inspection reports say. \u201cI want to kill myself,\u201d she announced before jumping off the balcony in a second attempt, breaking her pelvis and several other bones.<\/p>\n
New Era, an assisted living facility in Homestead, was still operating in 2024 when an elderly man was hospitalized with deadly Legionnaire\u2019s Disease. The home had contended with outbreaks since 2019 when it inexplicably halted water tests designed to prevent the spread of bacteria that causes severe lung infections, inspections said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t dismiss this population,\u201d a Health Department doctor warned New Era. \u201cThe elderly are very susceptible.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while health administrators were seeking to close the facility, leaders at its sister agency, the Department of Children and Families, were filling its beds.<\/p>\n
Frail, disabled or isolated adults in Miami-Dade can be moved from their unkempt or unsanitary homes for their own wellbeing only to land in assisted living facilities that are just as grim. State caseworkers have sent an untold number of elders in their care to a coterie of homes with a history of hurting, ignoring or humiliating their residents, records and anguished families say.<\/p>\n
\u201cDCF wants to get these clients off their books. People who know how substandard these homes are don\u2019t voluntarily go there. But if DCF can help keep their beds filled, those homes are happy to take them,\u201d said Michael Phillips, a former head of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, a state watchdog group for Floridians in elder care and nursing homes.<\/p>\n
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New Era Community Health Center, located at 1351 N Krome Ave. in Homestead, has been hit with dozens of violations by Florida\u2019s Agency for Health Care Administration. It has also received patients taken from their homes for their own safety by the state Department of Children and Families. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
The state\u2019s favored homes have been rebuked for skeleton crews, disease outbreaks, a meager diet of hot dogs and failure to investigate a rape allegation, according to public inspection reports and documents obtained by the Miami Herald. One facility left a suicidal resident hanging by the neck from a phone charging cord attached to the sprinkler system after his roommate discovered him unconscious. Two homes in a Miami chain lost their licenses after inspectors said negligent protocols caused dozens of elderly residents to contract COVID.<\/p>\n
Jorge Luis Musa, who owns New Era, said his home, which specializes in housing residents with mental illness, has accepted some of the most difficult and challenging clients in DCF custody. He acknowledged that health administrators have identified problems at the aging facility, but emphasized that he and his staff solve them as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, [DCF] patients never had an issue in our facility. I treat my patients like my own kids,\u201d Musa said while showing a reporter the renovated lobby, office, kitchen and dining area as staff dispensed evening medications. \u201cThese are the hardest cases. Nobody wants them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though DCF has declined repeatedly to answer questions about its elder protection program with the Herald, the agency said it is conscientious about placing vulnerable adults strictly in safe, licensed homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe scrutinize placements\u201d by reviewing DCF abuse investigations and Agency for Health Care Administration inspections, the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n
![\"Portion](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ahca "\\"ahca")
Portion of an Agency for Health Care Administration administrative complaint in 2019 seeking to revoke the license for Hialeah assisted living facility Villa Rosa IV after a finding that the home did not provide aid to a resident who had hanged himself in his room with a phone charging cord. Agency for Health Care Administration <\/p>\n
But DCF\u2019s own records show it rarely, if ever, finds fault when others raise alarm. Over a seven-year period, DCF received 117 hotline reports of maltreatment at 12 Miami-Dade ALFs frequently chosen as homes for vulnerable adults. Among the allegations: malnutrition, dehydration, medical neglect, physical injury and sexual abuse. None of the complaints was verified.<\/p>\n
DCF has also brushed aside allegations of resident neglect reported by other agencies. A 2025 inspection following a complaint to the Agency for Health Care Administration found 10 violations at a Miami ALF when a lone caregiver took a shower during her shift, allowing a confused and mentally ill resident to sneak out. He was later picked up by police on a bus bench \u201cdisoriented.\u201d The caregiver had not noticed he was missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most basic preventive measures is employee awareness,\u201d health inspectors wrote. DCF, in contrast, saw no \u201cinadequate supervision.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"View](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_103ALS00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_103ALS00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
Speaking about violations cited by health inspectors, New Era Community Health Center owner Jorge Luis Musa said the facility is undergoing renovations and \u201ceverything has been taken care of. We correct mistakes.\u201d Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com \u2018BIGGEST LOSERS\u2019 IN A BROKEN SYSTEM<\/p>\n
Tania Hernandez, a 38-year state employee who decides where elders will go after they are removed from their Miami-Dade homes by DCF, said during an interview with a state investigator that clients don\u2019t end up in luxury ALFs because the posh places are not willing to accept them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome ALFs only wanted the good clients. Those that are, they call [them], grandfather and grandmother… They sit. They don\u2019t bother. They eat. They sleep,\u201d she said. \u201cBut our clients are not easy clients. Our clients are very difficult clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose ALFs that I used will take any type of clients \u2013 those that, in the middle of the night, will wake up and break the whole place, wake up everyone. You can see the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retired County Judge Steven Leifman, who founded and presided over Miami-Dade\u2019s Mental Health Court for 30 years before retiring in 2025, told the Herald he was \u201cscared to death\u201d about the state\u2019s dearth of facilities for people with mental illness, no money and no one to take care of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system is desperate,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have adequate care or services in our state. People who need services are the biggest losers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are they supposed to do? Throw them out in the street?\u201d<\/p>\n
Grand Court Lakes, a 191-bed home that surrendered its license in 2022, continued to receive clients from DCF through at least 2021, department records obtained by the Herald show.<\/p>\n
By then, the North Dade home was one of the most heavily punished ALFs in Florida, with 34 legal cases resulting in almost $94,000 in fines.<\/p>\n
Inspection reports show one resident overdosed twice within four days, fell and broke an arm. Another was found unresponsive in his room after multiple falls. One resident broke a hip when he was pushed over by another in the dementia unit. The home didn\u2019t provide telephones to residents, as the law requires, to report abuse.<\/p>\n
![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/grand "\\"grand")
This 2021 Notice of Intent from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration to the now-shuttered Grand Court Lakes assisted living facility in North Miami lays out a series of injuries sustained by residents at the home. Agency for Health Care Administration <\/p>\n
A Hialeah-based chain of seven ALFs called Salmos 23 is named after the 23rd Psalm: \u201cThe Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.\u201d Despite numerous complaints to health inspectors from elderly people that Salmos 23 left them wanting the most basic necessities \u2014 like toilet paper \u2014 DCF chose it as a refuge over hundreds of other homes.<\/p>\n
At one Salmos home, 59 of 62 residents told inspectors last April they could not communicate with caregivers who only spoke Spanish, reports say. Said one visiting relative: \u201cAs far as explaining what her family needs and wants if she\u2019s in distress, it\u2019s difficult because of the language barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents were treated carelessly, disrespectfully, insensitively. One report detailed a staff member bathing a senior who was in hospice care with the window blinds open so that anyone in the garden outside could see. Inspectors chided the home for not reminding staff \u201cto stop \u2026 yelling at the residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
At another Salmos home, staff entered rooms without knocking and hovered when visitors stopped by, so they couldn\u2019t speak freely.<\/p>\n
Residents had no toilet paper or soap during two inspections last summer, they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a luxury; this is a necessity,\u201d one resident told inspectors.<\/p>\n
Treasured possessions were handled like junk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe staff was saying \u2018garbage, garbage, garbage\u2019 as they threw away items,\u201d an April 2025 report noted. Into the garbage went one man\u2019s Bible, eyeglasses, clothes and photos of his sister and the mom who adopted him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe staff throwing out my stuff,\u201d he said, \u201cit sent me low.\u201d<\/p>\n
One man said the ALF \u201crehomed\u201d his cat, named Baby, despite a doctor\u2019s letter stating the pet was an emotional support animal.<\/p>\n
A 98-bed Salmos home on West First Avenue planning to expand its mental health program blew its inspection at the time. Staff was AWOL when inspectors arrived. Whoever answered the phone at a sister Salmos hung up.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_ALF_Properties_MJO_14.JPG\" "\\"MIA_ALF_Properties_MJO_14.JPG\\"")
Salmos 23 #3, an assisted living facility at 808 W. First Ave. in Hialeah, is among the facilities where the Department of Children and Families have placed adults taken from their homes. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
But the chain\u2019s track record didn\u2019t stop DCF from moving more clients in, including a man at Salmos 23 #3 who was so miserable he ran away and went missing for a month. He visited a friend\u2019s house for a bath, bought food he\u2019d been craving and took excursions with his bus pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not a convict, not a robber and [have] not killed anybody,\u201d he told an inspector. But at Salmos 23, he \u201cfelt like he was in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Odelmys Bello, the chain\u2019s owner, told the Herald she specializes in rehabilitating troubled, run-down homes. She got started in the business in 2003.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have waiting lists [due to the high] quality of care,\u201d she said, emphasizing that she does not turn anyone away, not even the neediest cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I have residents coming from the hospital and coming in from DCF. I have a lot of referrals. Those residents don\u2019t have shoes, they don\u2019t have clothes, they don\u2019t have nothing,\u201d she said. \u201cI have them in my ALF for a few months, and they don\u2019t pay nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bello invited reporters to tour Salmos 23 #3, which appeared modern and homey. Several people who said they were relatives of Salmos 23 residents called the Herald at Bello\u2019s behest to say how well their loved ones had been treated. The chain\u2019s coordinator, Melissa Soriano, blamed poor reviews on overly critical inspectors looking to find fault.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way AHCA works, they cite you with whatever they want,\u201d Soriano said. \u201cWhatever you try to explain, they don\u2019t want to hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_ALF_Properties_MJO_25.JPG\" "\\"MIA_ALF_Properties_MJO_25.JPG\\"")
New Era Community Health Center has long been a destination for residents whose dementia or mental illness makes them difficult to place elsewhere. The home has been cited 52 times for health and safety violations since 2017, health inspection reports show. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com MISSING LAMPS, LARGE STAINS AND LEGIONNAIRES<\/p>\n
Musa, New Era\u2019s owner, told the Herald that health administrators were never serious about shutting down the complex, which occupies an entire city block. They reprimanded him to force improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were not trying to revoke,\u201d he said. \u201cThey wanted to put us into compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, he said, \u201ceverything has been taken care of. We correct mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the years, DCF has placed 20 to 30 people at his home, located at 1351 N. Krome Ave., Musa said. Hernandez steers clients to his home because \u201cshe knows we take care of our patients who have mental illness well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, yes. She gives us patients,\u201d Musa said. \u201cThey are taken out of their houses, and they cannot go back.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Era has long been a destination for residents whose dementia or mental illness makes them difficult to place elsewhere. The home has also been cited 52 times for health and safety violations since 2017, health inspection reports show.<\/p>\n
The worst failure involved a 60-year-old woman with epilepsy. She was supposed to see a neurologist after a hospital stay, but the home couldn\u2019t find one for her. \u201cShe only had Medicaid, and none of them wanted to see her,\u201d inspectors were told.<\/p>\n
The woman fell and lost consciousness when she had a severe seizure. Though she broke her nose, upper arm, two ribs, cervical vertebra and part of her skull, the home did not call an ambulance. But by the next morning, the woman was in a \u201cnonsurvivable\u201d coma, and later died, records say.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was fine. That is why we did not call the rescue,\u201d the owner told inspectors. Nor was the incident reported, as state law requires.<\/p>\n
A resident who was unable to care for himself and known for his habit of running away took off one day. He was found at a nearby park with two broken arm bones and a fracture of his neck. He could not say who he was; he had to be identified by fingerprinting.<\/p>\n
Another New Era runaway \u2014 Musa stressed that it\u2019s against the law to restrain residents \u2014 said \u201che was fed up with his ALF, and that the food would give him diarrhea, so he decided to go to the mall, where he could be homeless, receive air conditioning, water and teriyaki,\u201d a report said. He walked all night and police found him passed out on somebody\u2019s lawn. Dehydrated, he was diagnosed with a life-threatening \u201cacute kidney injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
When health inspectors arrived in October, they found a resident curled up in bed and his sweating roommate in a hot, \u201cmusty\u201d room with an air conditioner that couldn\u2019t be turned on because it was \u201cenclosed\u201d in a box. \u201cLarge black stains\u201d soiled the bathroom air vent.<\/p>\n
The two residents who shared the bare room had no TV, no lamps, and the blinds didn\u2019t work. \u201cThere was no clothing in the room other than the clothing that the residents had on their backs,\u201d a report stated.<\/p>\n
Lamps were removed because residents \u201cdestroy them all the time\u201d and could injure themselves, the owner said.<\/p>\n
Likewise with their clothes. \u201cIf the residents were given their clothing, they would have thrown it all over the place,\u201d the report quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n
New Era, a 200-bed facility, has had recurring outbreaks of Legionella, the bacteria that grow within water and air conditioning systems and can cause Legionnaires\u2019 Disease, records show. The potentially fatal infection was first diagnosed at a 1976 American Legion convention in Philadelphia, where a contaminated hotel air conditioning system left 200 people sick and 34 dead.<\/p>\n
![\"Portion](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AHCA "\\"AHCA")
Portion of a final order filed by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration against New Era Community Health Center in 2024 after a Legionnaire\u2019s outbreak left a resident with pneumonia. Florida Agency for Health Care Administration <\/p>\n
New Era \u201cfailed to follow\u201d a testing and maintenance program, a report said, until a resident was hospitalized with pneumonia in 2024.<\/p>\n
Musa said he is investing $1 million in the 62-year-old property because he is committed to improving it. He said he\u2019s installed new water testing equipment that is monitored by a new company and is replacing old AC units.<\/p>\n
\u2018DIFFICULT\u2019 PATIENTS<\/p>\n
The Agency for Health Care Administration, the state\u2019s health licensing and oversight arm, moved to deny New Era\u2019s license renewal application in 2019.<\/p>\n
That action didn\u2019t stop DCF from moving 76-year-old Jackie Meyerson there months later.<\/p>\n
She was one of those difficult clients.<\/p>\n
Meyerson had become frail and disoriented by the spring of 2019. When her friend, the now-retired television news anchor Bob Mayer, came to her apartment to check on her, he was assaulted by the odor and chaos. She was hoarding her possessions and unable to clean her home.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe needed more help than I could possibly give her,\u201d Mayer recalled. He called DCF\u2019s hotline, hoping the adult protection program could keep her safe.<\/p>\n
Instead, Meyerson was shuffled to three different ALFs in six months \u2014 from Hialeah to Kendall to Homestead. Mayer envisioned rocking chairs, crisp linens and tasty dinners. What Meyerson got in the first ALF where DCF deposited her was a bedraggled patio, plastic furniture, holes in the walls. Inspectors had threatened to shut it down.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, my God, was it horrible,\u201d Mayer told the Herald. \u201cThe whole experience played a big part in her getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
DCF moved Meyerson to a different ALF, but like the previous one, it employed only Spanish speakers.<\/p>\n
By then, DCF was running out of patience with Mayer, whom Meyerson appointed to manage her affairs. A Sept. 23, 2019, notation in Meyerson\u2019s file said Mayer would \u201cbe offered three options, as a courtesy gesture on the part of DCF.\u201d Meyerson could remain where she was. Or move to New Era. If not, DCF would take \u201cthe case to court\u201d to force her to accept one or the other.<\/p>\n
Meyerson moved into New Era that same day. The state allowed New Era to renew its license, settling for what appears to be $14,000 in fines.<\/p>\n
Mayer said he lost touch with Meyerson in spring 2020, when COVID struck. She died on Aug. 10, 2020 at age 77.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sickened to learn the full story of what happened to my friend,\u201d Mayer said after learning of Meyerson\u2019s fate. \u201cI don\u2019t think they gave a shit what happened to her. It\u2019s tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami Herald staff writer Michelle Marchante contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illustration by Neil Nakahodo Viewing this story in our app? Click here for a better experience on our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-215839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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