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COVID Relief Dollars Fueled Dara Daugherty’s Slum Empire | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

February 28, 2024

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click to enlarge Courtesy SLMPD A past booking photo of Dara Daugherty, who the City of St. Louis accused in January of being part of a massive illegal operation.

Dara Daugherty allegedly made a fortune off a very simple business model: illegally renting dozens of condemned properties around south St. Louis to people with nowhere else to go.

Her sprawling boarding house operation, which encompassed 39 ramshackle houses, filled Daugherty’s pockets to the tune of $40,000 per month, according to a lawsuit the city filed against her in January.

Many of Daugherty’s tenants suffered from mental illness for most of their lives, and received Social Security Income disability checks of nearly $1,000 per month.

Daugherty, notorious for her bullying demeanor, would take more than half that amount in rental payments for herself, according to tenants interviewed.

But in 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Daugherty found a new revenue stream: the federally funded State Assistance For Housing Relief, or SAFHR program. Missouri lawmakers had set it up to ensure that low- and moderate-income Missouri tenants kept a roof over their heads while their landlords could remain in business.

The money for it came from the Emergency Rental Assistance program administered by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Two of the limited liability companies that Daugherty had created, and which owned big chunks of her slum empire, received a total of $18,750 in SAFHR payments, according to records obtained by the Riverfront Times from the Missouri Housing Development Commission, which oversaw the SAFHR program.

The SAFHR payments came in the form of two allocations: $8,750 to AAA Sunshine Investments LLC; and $10,000 to Sunshine Investments, commission records show.

In addition, Keith Mack, Daugherty’s former romantic partner and one of her co-defendants in the city lawsuit, received another $5,000 in SAFHR payments, commission records show.

Daugherty did not return repeated phone calls to her cell phone.

Brian Vollenweider, a commission spokesman, did not return calls seeking comment.

Housing experts interviewed back in January told the RFT that it is highly unlikely that Daugherty could have obtained the SAFHR funds legally, since housing people in condemned properties would automatically invalidate any lease or other contract.

“I don’t think that could be kosher for the simple fact that already doing that rental agreement is an illegal contract,” said Glenn Burleigh, who, until his recent exit, was a longtime counselor for Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council, or EHOC.

Mack also did not return repeated phone calls.

During a phone interview in late January, Mack acknowledged fathering three young children with Daugherty, but says their romantic relationship ended five years ago and they no longer do business together.

Mack also declared he is not being fairly portrayed in the media.

”I’m being railroaded,” he said.

Yet records suggest Daugherty and her associates had success in garnering tax dollars for what the city has said was an illegal operation.

In one instance uncovered by the RFT, Andrea Erhart, a south city woman with a long history of mental illness, received help from Daugherty in 2021 to fill out an application for a year’s worth of rental assistance from SAHFR, or a total of $10,000, for her Daugherty-owned house on Texas Avenue.

Erhart’s application was granted in full, even though the house was condemned and considered uninhabitable, according to records from both the city and the woman’s caseworker with Places For People, a non-profit agency that helps people with mental health issues find treatment and housing.

On April 4, 2023, a Places for People caseworker wrote that the woman’s address “is considered a place not meant for habitation. This is due to severe structural issues, mold and rodents.”

State Rep. Bill Owen, R-Springfield, has long been a sharp critic of the SAFHR program and its apparent lack of state oversight.

News that SAFHR funds were being funneled to a slumlord like Daugherty led Owen to call for state lawmakers to take the first-ever hard look at SAFHR.

“And say, ‘Hey, we need to look into this,’” Owen says.

Missouri House Rep. Ingrid Burnett, D-Kansas City, said she wants to refer the matter of SAFHR oversight to the House Joint Committee On Government Accountability.

The news about Daugherty’s apparent misuse of SAFHR funds made the need for oversight more urgent than ever, according to Burnett.

“Obviously, somebody dropped the ball on accountability there,” Burnett says. “Again, it’s the lack of oversight.”

No one, not the commission, not lawmakers, really knows how SAFHR funds are being used, she said.

”So they think it’s all working, when it’s not,” Burnett says.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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