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St. Louis Slumlord Got Federal COVID Relief Funds, Tenants Say | St. Louis

Published

1 year ago

January 23, 2024

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click to enlarge Courtesy SLMPD A past booking photo of Dara Daugherty, who the City of St. Louis sued this month for being part of a massive illegal operation.

On and off since 2014, Danielle Hopkins has rented from Dara Daugherty, the St. Louis slumlord who was hit last week with a lawsuit from the city accusing her of operating “illegal rooming houses” in 39 condemned houses across south city.

Most recently, Hopkins spent roughly five years at a house on South 38th Street in Dutchtown, a house that the city says has been condemned since November 2018. During that time, the city cited the house for a litany of violations and it was not legally habitable. But that didn’t stop Daugherty from collecting $850 a month in rent from Hopkins.

Then there was the portion picked up by taxpayers. Hopkins says that at Daugherty’s urging, she applied for money from a state-administered COVID-19 relief program and ended up getting more than $3,000, all of which Hopkins says went straight into Daugherty’s pocket. Hopkins says that even though Daugherty was getting rental assistance money through her, a corresponding amount was not knocked off the rent. “You need to pay, you need to pay,” Hopkins says she heard from Daugherty again and again.

“She said she’d give us some of the money but never did,” Hopkins recalls.

The State Assistance For Housing Relief program, or SAFHR, provided financial aid for rent and utilities to tenants hurt financially by the pandemic. The Missouri Housing Development Commission, which oversaw the federally funded SAFHR, estimates the program prevented the evictions of at least 86,000 Missourians (although, as the River City Journalism Fund has reported, many landlords who benefited later led the area in eviction filings).

In most cases, SAFHR funds to help tenants went directly to landlords on the tenants’ behalf. That apparently includes Hopkins, who shared with the RFT emails between her and the Missouri Housing Development Commission which give credence to her claims.
click to enlarge MIKE FITZGERALD One of the apartments in Dara Daugherty’s building on Michigan Avenue.

In another instance uncovered by the RFT, a south city woman with a long history of mental illness — who asked that her name not be used out of fear of retaliation — received help from Daugherty in 2021 to fill out an application for a year’s worth of rental assistance, or a total of $10,800.

The application was granted in full, even though the woman’s 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, Places for People caseworker Emily Moore wrote that the woman’s address “is considered a place not meant for habitation.This is due to severe structural issues, mold and rodents.”

Moore ended her letter by stating that she had partnered with the client “numerous times throughout the past year to address these issues, with no response from her landlord.”

The tenant says others who rent from Daugherty have told her they also received SAFHR payments, even though their properties are also condemned.

Daugherty “was getting it on everybody,” the woman says of the SAFHR funding.

Housing experts interviewed for this story told the RFT that it is highly unlikely that Daugherty could have obtained the SAFHR funds legally, since the housing of 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,” says Glenn Burleigh, who, until his recent exit, was a longtime counselor for Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council, or EHOC.

“Since it’s already an illegal contract, since nobody should’ve been able to move into that place in the first place,” Burleigh adds, “ you shouldn’t be able to request any money on it.”

Brian Vollenweider, a spokesman for the Missouri Housing Development Commission, which oversees SAFHR funding, did not return calls seeking comment Monday.

Keith Mack, a real estate investor who is one of Daugherty’s co-defendants in the city lawsuit, acknowledged fathering three young daughters with Daugherty, but says their romantic relationship ended five years ago and they no longer do business together.

“I’m being railroaded by the city,” Mack says.

Mack acknowledges that he helped some of his tenants obtain SAFHR funding, but he declines to say how much. He denies that any of those tenants live in condemned buildings.

“I’ve never scammed anybody. I never will scam anybody,” Mack says. “I was raised Beaver Cleaver.”

Mack acknowledges that some of the properties he and Daugherty rented out did not have valid occupancy permits.

“But the properties had running water, electricity,” he says. “She’s got a shit ton of electricity, gas bills and everything. Who cares if the utilities are in her name? She paid the utilities. Most of the people couldn’t even get utilities in their name because they weren’t credit-worthy enough.”

Mack directs much of the blame to the city itself.

“The city allowed the properties to go the way they were,” Mack says. “The city allowed the electric to be on at the properties, so if they were so uninhabitable, why didn’t the people go somewhere else?”

Mack also praises Daugherty’s willingness to take in tenants other landlords wouldn’t touch, such as registered sex offenders.

“I don’t like sex offenders,” he says. “But you know what? She had a heart and rented to the sex offenders because the state asked her to. She’s got a soft heart. She’s not the devil that everybody is portraying her to be.”

Aloysius Reiter says that he rented from Daugherty from between 2016 and 2019, before the pandemic and pandemic-relief entered the public lexicon. But Reiter’s experience with Daugherty, which was not good, speaks to Daugherty’s M.O. when it came to renters on government assistance.

Reiter, who is legally blind, says that he received $900 a month in disability payments, a little more than half of which went to rent to Daugherty.

At one point, Reiter told Daugherty he’d gotten a job, and his landlord went off on him.

“And she seemed furious about that,” Reiter recounts. “She wanted me to be beholden to my disability.”

Reiter adds, “Her and that Keith are very manipulative people.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

9 months 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

9 months 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

9 months 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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