16900: (Hermantin) Sun-Sentinel--AIDS agency chief defends use of housing (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

AIDS agency chief defends use of housing



By Leon Fooksman
Staff Writer

October 4, 2003

The director of a Delray Beach social services agency makes no apologies for
steering federally funded AIDS clients into her relatives' rental homes.

Daniella Henry said her Haitian American Community Council couldn't always
find landlords willing to accept some of Palm Beach County's poorest and
sickest residents. So Henry said she placed at least a half-dozen clients in
her mother's and half sister's three houses, as well as her own two homes.

The decision made sense at the time, she said. But now that there's a
federal investigation into the matter, Henry admits making mistakes,
including failing to disclose her family ties before officials started
raising questions last summer.

"Who doesn't break the rules? Who's perfect here?" she said.

In an in-depth interview about the investigation, Henry made one thing
clear: She and her relatives weren't motivated by profit in housing the
clients during the past three years. She also revealed new details about her
family's and employees' ties to the AIDS housing program.

Leaning back in a chair in her agency's conference room, Henry talked calmly
and confidently about overcoming the accusations but admitted the scrutiny
is taking a toll. The former fashion model said she may leave the agency she
started -- possibly in six months to a year -- to run for public office in
her native Haiti, where she said her father runs a hotel, funeral homes and
restaurants. Or she said she may return to school to study human rights or
family therapy.

She said she won't leave until her agency's problems are resolved and she
finds a successor.

"I don't want this any more. I don't want to stay here. I feel like I'm
trapped," Henry said. "I have so many other job offers. I can do much
better. I can make three or four times the amount of money than here in my
private business."

West Palm Beach officials overseeing the AIDS housing program determined in
August that there was a conflict of interest with the council placing
clients in Henry's relatives' homes and paying them with federal money. A
final decision about possible sanctions is pending with the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development, which funds the housing program. West Palm
Beach warned the council's board chairman that future conflicts could cost
the Haitian council its funding.

HUD rules prohibit employees who run the program from benefiting financially
from it, but they allow exceptions if employees disclose a conflict.

The AIDS housing program wasn't the only problem for Henry last summer.

The council's two funding agencies, Palm Beach County Department of
Community Services and the Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County,
have said Henry and former supervisor Gethro Louis Jean may have violated
nepotism rules by co-owning a West Palm Beach house. The county and CSC, as
well as West Palm Beach, put the council under closer supervision and
required Henry and board members to affirm conflict of interest policies and
resolve administrative problems, such as poor record keeping.

Representatives from those agencies said the Haitian council has either
resolved or is close to resolving most of their concerns. The council's
Delray Beach and Lantana offices received more than $860,000 this year from
county agencies to provide immigration assistance, prenatal care, infant
services and housing for AIDS victims.

Yet Tana Ebbole, director of the Children's Services Council, said Henry
needs to keep a distance between her family's finances and her agency's
business.

"This needs to be beyond reproach. There shouldn't be any gray areas," she
said. As a nonprofit group receiving government assistance, the Haitian
council "needs to set the highest standards, not the median standards,"
Ebbole said.

While Henry awaits a resolution from HUD, she explained how her relatives
got houses for AIDS clients.

Henry said her half sister, Aline Jean Baptiste, and mother, Germaine
Filsaime, acquired two houses from a former Haitian council employee and
another from a volunteer in 1999 and 2000. The ownership of those houses was
transferred through quit-claim deeds that passed on the properties'
financial obligations and maintenance to Henry's half sister and mother.
Several of Henry's employees acted as witnesses or notaries for the property
transfers.

Henry said she had no qualms about allowing former workers to transfer
properties to her relatives and permitting other employees to sign documents
related to the land transfers. Neither Henry nor her agency has been accused
of any wrongdoing related to the property transfers.

Filsaime owned one house and co-owned another property used to house AIDS
clients, Henry said. Henry's half sister owned one house, and Henry owned
two homes. The AIDS program was only billed for people living at her
mother's and half sister's properties, Henry said.

The former council volunteer who transferred the home to Filsaime did so
because she was moving to Haiti, Henry said.

Filsaime took over the property's mortgage, she said. The property was
refinanced, and some of the money was sent to the volunteer, she said.

Henry said she had no information about the transfer of the property to her
half sister, who could not be reached for comment. She said she does not
talk to her half sister.

"I don't remember this. That was in 2000," Henry said.

Henry sees some good coming from all the accusations.

"Everything that has happened has made me stronger. I am a leader," she
said. "I don't worry about things. I am a blessed child."

She believes her accomplishments -- serving what she estimates is more than
25,000 Haitians since 1992 -- overshadow the allegations. As unsettling as
the accusations have been, Henry takes comfort in not being accused of
mishandling public money.

"What I did over the years meant more to me than these petty allegations. I
would have felt bad if the government said I pocketed the money. That would
be bad," she said. "If these clients didn't live in these houses, I would
have felt bad. And if they didn't and I did this for the purposes of getting
money, then I would have felt bad. But whatever I am doing, I am doing it
from the bottom of my heart."

Leon Fooksman can be reached at lfooksman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6647.


Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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