The group’s home brings fear to the neighborhood in southern Miami-Dade County

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Florida. – Surveillance video shows a resident of a collective house entering a neighbor’s house. Many in the South Miami-Dade County neighborhood said the collective house is raising security concerns.

The video shows a man, who was shaking profusely, knocking on the door of a house in the Southwest 325th Street area. Omar Chargui said that his wife opened the door because he thought the man was there to deliver a package. He was a resident of a collective house and he broke into his home.

“My wife starts screaming frantically. I’m getting out of the shower. She invades the room and says, ‘There is a man! There is a man! A stranger in the house! ‘My heart falls,’ said Chargui. “All kinds of images come to my mind. I open the bedroom door. I see the man right there. “

Chargui, a prison officer, said he decided to take his gun. He said he observed the intruder and realized that he had mental health problems. The man asked Chargui to call the police. Chargui said he promised to help him and escorted him to the door.

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“He continued to spit and then ran,” said Chargui.

Chargui said the man was hospitalized under the Baker Act, but days later he was back on the block and at the group’s home. Chargui later learned that among the residents of the collective house there were sexual predators and convicted criminals.

The group’s home, which is licensed by the Florida Disability Agency, is under investigation. An agency representative reported that four residents live in the group’s home. According to the Florida Police Department, two of them are registered sex offenders.

Chargui is not the only one with a story to tell. Other neighbors at the collective house said the residents were unsupervised, so the parents decided not to allow their children to play outside. Some neighbors said they live in fear.

Tyrome Burton said that some neighbors were proactive and distributed and displayed pamphlets showing the history of the collective house residents.

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“These guys would come and take them down, and they would be angry, and you would see them come and look for the pamphlets,” said Burton. “There are no worries in this neighborhood other than that house.”

No one at the group’s home spoke to Local 10 News. Records show that Eartha Mays, also known as Eartha Fagan, is the owner / operator of the group’s home. Mays owns the company Angel Heart Support Services and has a license for five collective residences.

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

According to a 2019 administrative complaint, the Florida Department of Children and Families concluded that Mays committed financial exploitation by misusing residents’ funds. She reached an agreement in that case. Court records show that Mays is facing a wrongful death lawsuit after a resident of one of his other homes was found shot to death in 2019.

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