City Sues HIV/AIDS Nonprofit Which Allegedly Used Grant to Build Strip Club

A few weeks ago, an audit of the District's Department of Health showed that the city had not applied proper oversight on a $10 million grant program designed to benefit HIV/AIDS residential services. Turns out that at least some of that money was allegedly spent on building a strip club.

Earlier today, the District's attorney general, Irv Nathan, announced that the city was filing suit against Miracle Hands, an organization which stands accused of taking $329,653 of that $10 million in grants and spending it on construction of a nightclub. (The investigation was prompted at the request of At-Large Councilmember David Catania.) The organization, the A.G. says, billed the city for renovations made at two warehouses which were to be used to house HIV/AIDS patients; one of those warehouses has the same address as Stadium Club.

Of course, the actual renovations on a facility to accomodate the patients was never actually completed, according to the lawsuit. Oh, and the city's former HIV/AIDS Housing Administrator, Debra Rowe -- who was in charge of making decisions on who would receive the funding before she was fired in 2008 -- is currently the executive director of Miracle Hands.

In a statement, Nathan stated that the Office of the Attorney General "will continue to be relentless in our efforts to recover government funds from those who have unjustly enriched themselves at the expense of the District of Columbia." The lawsuit seeks $1 million in damages.

Miracle Hands Complaint Filed 8-30-11

Contact the author of this article or email tips@dcist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Aaron Morrissey in News on August 30, 2011 4:55 PM

Comments [rss]

Keith Folger

The DC HIV/AIDS programs have a history of poor oversight and misuse of funds. This comes as no surprise to me. While I hate to admit it, it is this kind of fraud that is going to give the Republicans the ammo to start cutting HIV programs.

mirrorballdc

That's a lot of $1 bills.

HillmanDC

Solution is simple. And so very DC.

Rename Miracle Hands, reorganize, and apply for yet another grant.

I'd suggest Jazz Hands, LLC.

That's the DC way. The real graft in DC is in the contracting fields. Anything else is just chump change.

Fluxgirl

This is why DC can't have home rule.

I need to be more creative in my grant writing.

matthew731

which were to be used to house HIV/AIDS patients

A quick note to Aaron: unless this was to be a hospital ward, the term you want here is people with HIV/AIDS, not HIV/AIDS patients. The latter denotes actively being in medical care. People are living 20+ years with HIV these days, and "patients" is not their dominant identity--it's simply what they are when they go to the doctor.

Joan Arkham

WHO IS THE WHAT NOW??? I don't even...

I'm just here for the snark

Back in June the Stadium Club posted "openings" for exotic dancers on the Dept of Employment Services website (where the were a "preferred employer"). Full service indeed.
http://dcist.com/2011/06/hey_a...

Over the River

And I never heard back from them. Chippendale on my CV just wasn't enough.

Photo NSFW!

http://www.worthpoint.com/wp-c...

D_Rez

You shouldn't have chosen "Queen Anne" for your stage name.
That, and the fact that the morning sun in your face really shows your age.

BombaySplashVermouth

What problem? A strip club is just like a classroom, without the books. "Look there - that is where you might get AIDS from - always wear protection when you explore there."

Kemit

yeah, and I can learn that lesson for a $1. Second lesson is don't hang around until the lights come on or that lady becomes a man or a bat.

Dread_Pirate_Roberts

Epic! Fail! Epic fail!

James Schaefer

When the stadium was built DC's club district (Nation and The Edge among others) and the gay strip club district (Wet, Secrets, etc.) were both torn down as the city made some odd promise at the time to help those places relocate in reasonable zones away from schools and the like. That didn't happen... as far as I know. I think the city opened the floodgate on this latest little embarassment a while ago. Why an HIV-AIDS organization would waste money on this is beyond me. Sounds more like the city wanted to skip out on that set of promises and pass it onto somebody else. In this case make an GLBT group deal with it.

Ollie Pooeater

The HIV AIDS organization was a sham to get funding. There never was going to be any social services here.

Bethesdaist

So the group was forced by the city's inaction to build a (straight) strip club? Are you on their defense team?

IMGoph

if david catania doesn't run for and win the AG position when it comes up for election, it'll either be because he's become complacent, or because DC voters are likely to vote for someone with the intelligence and competence of a ham sandwich, all choices available.

Kemit

show me ham sandwich for a hundred Alex. If it sat on a plate for a few years, it would accomplish about as much and spare me the investigative committees. Seriously, it may require a write in but ham sandwich may have a chance.

Ollie Pooeater

I have a hard time believing a gay quasi-republican can win a city wide election in DC. All the city wide elections are still dominated by the old guard or people who serve the old guard (Mendo).

alexalexalexalexalex

And Republicans, even quasi ones, are irreparably tainted by their connection to the national GOP.

Ollie Pooeater

Yeah, but it's worse than that. No one, unconnected to the old guard can win either. It's an old boy's network in DC. Either you're in or you're out.

Look at what happened to Jacque Patterson. The DC Dem's are afraid of losing the At-large seat in a split field of candidates (especially one that could split Ward 8 votes), so the BOEE determines that a bunch of signatures are invalid for an inconvenient candidate, and an amenable DC Dem judge refuses to hear the case.

D_Rez

Good for AG Nathan!
Not a Gray fan, but actions like this are a reason to smile.

Over the River

But Strip Clubs may reduce the incidences of new HIV cases. Because if you have your hand wrapped around your own erection, you can't put it anyplace else.

Ollie Pooeater

There's no sex in the champagne room.

greent6

Good grief.

Samuel A. Moore

http://www.washingtontimes.com...
They also donated to Team Thomas...

Guye Jern

HTJ: "This is a total misrepresentation of my position on strip clubs and not factual my legislation limited the number of strip clubs allowed in our ward."

http://www.facebook.com/groups...

This stuff is all coming into focus.

Guye Jern

So, it appears that not only did HTJ work towards bringing in strip clubs to NE, he also limited competition to give those existing clubs a monopoly.

What a player!

Cliff Barr

Wow! What the other poster said is true, you really can't make this shit up...

knackers

Yes, and then surprisingly, Thomas went from being opposed to strip clubs to showing Ron Moten-like enthusiasm...

Kittyliteral

You can't make this shit up.

Matt Roberts

Perhaps you should combine this with this story: http://dcist.com/2011/08/the_w... Seems the fed budget crisis has delayed funding for AIDS/HIV in the District. And the city is spending money blindly...

matthew731

Without seeing what Miracle Hands said in their application for this money and knowing the dynamics of this grant, I don't think that there's grounds to pin this on the city's spending habits.

If this organization put in a credible, solid, plan to build housing for people with HIV/AIDS, and then turned around and fraudulently spent it on a club, that's the fault of the organization. But if it turns out that there was oversight not happening by a contracting officer, that's obviously not acceptable either.

adamsmorgan

I love this city, but we really do find new and unique ways to embarass ourselves every week don't we?! Jesus.

Shiba Fussa

And the cool thing is the DC leadership will continue to get elected because the residents like to see cool things like this in the news and really enjoy it because it brings attention to DC's struggle for freedom and voting rights.