A mother and daughter arrested for operating unlicensed assisted living facilities are vowing to stay in business.
Marion County Sheriff’s Office video showed dead bugs all over the pots and pans and inside the dishwasher.
They said 12 people were staying in one Marion Oaks home, with some living in the garage, which is stacked to the ceiling with boxes and trash.
“The living conditions that they’re residing in are less than the general quality that would be expected in a facility,” said Detective Eric Dice.
They executed a search warrant approved by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and State Attorneys investigators Thursday and arrested the operators of what they called unlicensed illegal assisted living facilities: 46-year-old Mary Alexander and her daughter Tara Collins-Johnson.
The report said Alexander was taking the majority of people’s social security checks.
She was out of jail Friday and back at her facility. She said she has no plans of shutting down. For one – Alexander said it’s not assisted living. It’s a licensed emergency homeless shelter known as Samaritan Comfort Shared Housing. She even keeps those licenses on the wall.
“I really don’t know why they think we are assisted living. We don’t provide assistance for medication, and we don’t provide assistance with personal care. That’s on all the paper work and I don’t understand it,” Alexander said.
As far as the locking pantry and refrigerator goes, Alexander said it’s done in part at the donors’ request so all nine residents have equal access to that food. And the financing? Alexander said residents who can pay rent, do. Those with no income stay for free.
Suzanne Sutton said she gives Alexander $700 per month for her stay, "But that’s not too bad considering what we get, we get food, we get everything.”
“I’m not the only person who I’ve seen her take in that didn’t have any money, and gave them a place to stay," Melody Petersheim said. "I love her. I don’t know where I’d be without her.”
Florida’s Agency For Healthcare Adminstration sent Alexander a cease and desist letter last month. It said Florida statute defines an ALF as any building, home, or other residential facility, whether operated for profit or not, which undertakes through its ownership or management to provide housing, meals, and one or more personal services for a period exceeding 24 hours to one or more adult who are relatives of the owner or administrator.
Alexander responded, saying the state was singling out an African-American business and she was prepared to expose them, and also sent her response to the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Alexander said she won’t let Thursday’s arrest stop her.
“I’m still here because I think about Rosa Parks, what if she’d given up? I think about Martin Luther King. I’m not going to run, I didn’t do anything wrong. My mission in this life is to help our homeless population and that’s what I’m going to do,” Alexander said.
Alexander's daughter was charged with an additional count of elderly neglect.