A CLOSER LOOK AT COMMUNITY SWEAT EQUITY HOUSING CORP.: HOUSING CORP. RENTED TO TAX-FUNDED ADULT DAY CARE

Copyright 1998 Southeast Missourian

When Community Sweat Equity Housing Corp. was begun in Cape Girardeau in 1993 as a response to a perceived housing shortage in the city, the primary goal was to provide low- and moderate-income families with a means to become homeowners.

At the time of its founding, Dr. Bernice Coar-Cobb, president of the not-for-profit corporation, said, "The need is there. In some cases you'll find more than 12 to 15 people in a single home."

Yet, despite the announced need for housing in the city, not all the 10 properties purchased by CSEH were used to house families. Two of the homes in particular -- one on North West End Blvd. and one on Independence -- were rented out by CSEH to a senior citizens organization, the Golden Age Club, for use as a senior adult day-care center and club.

The relationship between CSEH and the senior citizens club ended abruptly in 1996 when the funding for the club's center was cut off. The funding, which came from Cape Girardeau County taxpayers, was stopped when the county officials learned that the funds were apparently not being used for their intended purposes.

Within in a year after the Golden Age Club lost its funding from the county and ceased to operate in a CSEH-owned property, CSEH deeded both the property on North West End Boulevard and on Independence back to Union Planters Bank to avoid foreclosure on the houses.

The Golden Age Day Care Center

CSEH rented the residence at 4 N. West End to the Golden Age center of Cape Girardeau from May to September 1995 to house its senior-citizen activities. The center was supposed to be open to senior adults five hours a day, five days a week and was to provide activities and events for its clientele, which organizers estimated to be about 15 people per day.

In October, the club moved to the house at 1304 Independence, also owned by CSEH, where it remained until April 1996.

CSEH board member and treasurer Michael Sterling justified renting the space to the Golden Age Club, saying that the board decided that the adult day care center fit in well with the overall goal of Community Sweat Equity.

In the original incorporation papers for CSEH filed with the Missouri secretary of state's office, one of the stated purposes for the organization was "to promote, secure and participate in programs beneficial to the population of Southeast Missouri area . . . particularly in the area of housing, which in the opinion of the Board of Directors may be helpful and important to the low and median income, disabled and elderly population."

While the primary focus of CSEH was housing, Sterling said that the work of the organization was not limited to housing.

The Golden Age center "provided something for the community, especially for the seniors," he said.

Sterling added the houses were vacant at the time.

Local real estate broker Thomas M. Meyer, who worked with CSEH managing properties for the group for over two years, said that the board believed the original business plan was broad enough to include renting the space for a senior adult center.

He said the board felt the program provided by the Golden Age center would be beneficial to the community by providing senior citizens with an atmosphere to meet that was not sterile like an office building, but comfortable like a home.

"It wasn't looked at as a permanent home, but as a short-term experiment," Meyer said. "They were looking to move to another location."

County funds -- 1995

The impetus behind the center's closing on Independence was the loss of the grant funding that had come through the Cape Girardeau County Senior Citizens Service Fund.

In March 1995, Golden Age submitted a $16,000 grant proposal to the county's senior fund board.

The Senior Citizens Service Fund raises money in the county through property taxes. A certain portion of the tax money is set aside by the county each year to fund projects for senior citizens, such as meals and transportation costs through the Cape Girardeau Senior Center, in-house health services provided by the Cape Girardeau County Health Department and the Retired Senior Volunteer Project of the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging.

The SCSF board, which is appointed by the county commission, receives funding requests and grant applications from agencies and organizations wanting to provide services to senior citizens. The board then decides which programs to fund, though final approval of the funding is made by the county commission.

Funding requests for any given year are required to be submitted to the SCSF board by October of the previous year. Decisions for the next year's funding are made by early December.

Golden Age did not submit its first funding request to the county's senior board until March 1995, five months after it was due and three months after the 1995 budget had been set by the board. Still, on March 20 the board voted to fund the adult day care center as well as four other programs that had submitted new grant applications. The Golden Age Day Care Center was granted $16,000 for 1995.

Vouchers submitted to the county for 1995 show that Golden Age received $14,103 of the $16,000 grant for its 1995 expenses. The expenses included $784 for office supplies, $3,555 for rent and insurance, $3,900 salary for the center's programmer and $5,864 salary for the center's facilitator.

When Golden Age needed a facility in which to house the senior adult day care center, it turned to Community Sweat Equity Housing to help find a place.

In May, CSEH rented the house on North West End Boulevard to the center. The center stayed in the house until October when it was moved to the Independence location. The rent, utilities and insurance costs charged to Golden Age by CSEH each month during 1995 was $395.

The original grant application submitted to the SCSF board by Golden Age, including the rental fees to be paid to CSEH, was written by Dr. Bernice Coar-Cobb, president of Community Sweat Equity.

The application also included salaries for a facilitator and a programmer. The facilitator named for the Golden Age Club was Michael Sterling, treasurer of CSEH and Coar-Cobb's husband. The programmer was to be Helen Sterling, Michael Sterling's mother.

Coar-Cobb was also responsible for submitting vouchers to the county on behalf of the Golden Age Adult Day Care Center. Included on every voucher she submitted were rent payments to Community Sweat Equity. Thus, signing the vouchers as the administrator of Golden Age, Coar-Cobb was securing grant money to pay another organization for which she was president.

The first voucher submitted by Coar-Cobb to the county was on May 23, 1995, and included payment of expenses for May. Although the voucher indicates that no one was working in the center until May 18, the voucher requests a rent payment of $395 for the entire month.

In addition, the voucher includes not only the rent payment for May, but also the payment for December, for a total of $790, the first and last months' rent. Because the grant to Golden Age ran only through the end of the year, the initial rent payment by the club to CSEH included May and December, the first and last month of the grant.

The check to pay the expenses was written by the county on June 9, 1995.

But when Coar-Cobb submitted a voucher to the county's SCSF board for December expenses, she included a payment of $395 to Community Sweat Equity for December's rent. Thus, according to vouchers submitted to the county, Golden Age paid CSEH twice for December's rent.

The voucher was submitted to the county on Jan. 8, 1996, and paid Jan. 17.

County funds -- 1996

In October 1995, Coar-Cobb submitted another grant proposal to the SCSF board on behalf of Golden Age, this time for 1996. The 1996 proposal asked for $29,284, more than twice what the Golden Age center received from the county in 1995.

The increase included a raise in the housing costs to be charged to the county by CSEH. The 1995 costs were $395 per month. The charge for 1996 was to be $650 per month.

But the SCSF board did not approve the entire grant proposal request. As a part of its $290,000 budget for 1996, the board approved $16,000 for the Golden Age Club.

The Senior Citizens Services Fund Board submitted its 1996 recommendations to the county on Dec. 5, 1995, including the $16,000 grant to the Golden Age center.

In a letter to the club on Jan. 10, 1996, Dr. Shelba Branscum, then president of the SCSF board, informed the club that they had been awarded $16,000 for the senior adult day-care center for calendar year 1996. A contract with the county was signed on behalf of the club by Coar-Cobb on Jan. 24. Coar-Cobb listed herself as a "liaison."

Even then, not all of the $16,000 was paid by the county. The grant was discontinued by the SCSF board and the contract with the Golden Age center terminated in early April 1996 after an internal investigation by the SCSF board determined that the funds did not appear to be going for their intended purposes.

NEXT: Suspicions about a possible misuse of county funds by the Golden Age center prompted an investigation of the senior adult day care center by detectives from the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department.