ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — “We'll put both of you guys right here,” Jennifer Titus gestures to FloridaCommerce Secretary Alex Kelly and Office of Long-Term Resiliency Director Justin Domer to sit across the table in a conference room at 10 Tampa Bay.
It’s an introduction months in the making after 10 Investigates sent email after email to FloridaCommerce asking for answers to questions many seek about Rebuild Florida. People like Mary Simpson, who’s waited four years for a new mobile home, and Jane Moore, who spent 433 days in a hotel room, to come back to a home far from complete.
All recipients of Rebuild Florida, a program under FloridaCommerce, promising homes will be repaired or replaced. None thought it would take this long.
“Projects that they thought would just take months took years. Some people of course, are still waiting. Why?” Titus asked.
“In some cases, some cases, because Florida didn't have enough funding for some of these individuals. The funding that Florida received from HUD for the Irma program was not enough,” Kelly said.
FloridaCommerce told 10 Investigates that the state received $480 million earmarked for less than 4,000 homeowners. But as our investigation uncovered, contracts that started out at one price doubled, tripled or even quadrupled.
“There's not an invoice that's paid that's not scrutinized carefully,” Kelly said.
However, some homeowners say their projects were not done how they were told they would be completed.
“It's not fair to me to have to me and my husband or my family to keep waiting,” Simpson said. Simpson has been living in a hotel, waiting for her mobile home to be replaced. Roughly a 30-minute drive west of there, Moore hopes a contractor will finish making repairs.
“We were supposed to have three ramps,” Moore said.
The contracts were supposed to be overseen by the state vendor, IEM. The disaster recovery business won a $250 million contract to oversee the Rebuild Program. According to IEM’s website, it has been helping states nationwide with disaster recovery. President Joe Biden recently appointed its founder to a national infrastructure advisory council.
10 Investigates showed Kelly and Domer a picture of Moore’s home.
“There is spackle on the walls, there's cracked windows, but they get a letter from Rebuild saying that this project is complete, even though they’ve complained and complained that this project is not complete. Hearing stuff like that, would you say a project like that is complete?” Titus asked.
“So, we have our team on the ground. They've been communicating and visiting with these homeowners. And if they find anything that needs to be addressed, we are going to address it. These folks are our priority, and we're going to help them,” Domer said.
“And I want to add, too, if our contractor signed off on something as complete. And if it's not actually consistent with the work. In other words, if they're if they're essentially lying, and they're saying something that's complete, but it's not complete, that could be an actual case of fraud," Kelly said.
Five days after first sitting down with us, in a follow-up interview with our Jacksonville reporting partners First Coast News WTLV-TV, the FloridaCommerce secretary said they’ve formally requested an official fraud investigation.
“It's clear that the contractors had not actually or the subcontractors, I should say, had not actually completed the work. Whatever was required in the agreement with the homeowner, they had not completed the work. And yet IEM signed off in the inspection. They signed off as complete. And you know, credit to these homeowners, they were able to literally show us that it was not complete,” Kelly said.
“IEM could face fraud charges if the investigation finds fraud,” Heather Crawford asked.
“They could, yeah,” Kelly replied.
IEM declined an on-camera interview but said in a statement told 10 Investigates: "that the construction is carried out by contractors selected and hired by Florida Commerce, which IEM did not have direct oversight to manage until 2021.
"In addition, each completed home comes with a home warranty and requires a municipal and final home inspection. IEM has a call center and case management team that homeowners may contact when issues arise."
But homeowners say complaints went unanswered for years.
“They are pretty consistently telling us that they've left messages for IEM, not gotten phone calls back for some time,” Kelly said.
After 10 Investigates sent a list of dozens of homeowners who were upset about how their project had been managed, the state responded. They sent crews from Tallahassee across Florida to meet with Rebuild recipients — and see the failed repairs and rebuilds firsthand.
“We’re on the ground. We’re visiting with these homeowners, and we will ensure that if we find anything that we do not think is safe or decent, we’ll repair it,” Domer said.
It's help that some have been waiting for for years.
“It's about time that something gets done out here,” Simpson said. “I just waited, just waited.”
“I would like to see proper handling of this program,” Moore said.
10 Investigates' conversation with state officials was about 30 minutes long. We asked them so much more, including why we saw some six-figure hotel bills. They agreed it was not a wise use of taxpayer money.
