The Daily Agenda: Statewide scam makes its way to Tucson
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A statewide fraud scheme involving fake sober living homes that target Native Americans has touched down in Tucson, with tribal support agencies receiving upwards of 20 reports a week.
The scam involves the homes signing up Native Americans with the promise of treatment. But the homes offer no treatment and in some cases, victims have had to break out of the residences in the middle of the night to call for help, as Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer reported.
Members of the Tucson City Council discussed the problem during their meeting this week, after Ward 1 Councilwoman Lane Santa Cruz and Ward 2 Councilman Paul Cunningham said their offices had been getting calls about such homes in their neighborhoods since at least June.
“The lack of security and oversight of many of these sober living homes have caused issues in our neighborhoods,” they wrote in a June memo. “This has come both from unsupervised clients and a predatory element looking to take advantage of the addicted population.”
In May, Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that Arizona was the victim of a massive fraud involving sober living homes and the state’s Medicaid program.
The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System was billed for “services” and scammers used the names of Native Americans, including some who were dead, to bill for made-up services.
Initial reports of the fraud came out of the Four Corners and Phoenix areas, but scammers don’t discriminate and if it worked up there, then there was a good chance it would work in Tucson. It was only a matter of time before reports of local activity started coming in.
“We have individuals that are practically kidnapped and taken to these sober living homes,” Cunningham said Tuesday. “What really concerns me is that there are actually people out there exploiting people going through rough patches. You’re actually taking from someone who has nothing left to give. That’s appalling. It shouldn’t happen anywhere and it will not happen in Tucson.”
Representatives from AHCCCS told council members that they’ve put several safeguards in place and have issued more than 100 license suspensions and put a provider moratorium in place. But the problem is larger in scope than officials previously indicated.
AHCCCS spokesman Kyle Sawyer told council members that the scam is “absolutely identified” as being connected to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic, with AHCCCS setting up a missing person's section on its website that allows law enforcement to request system data regarding if the person has been receiving services.
AHCCCS has suspended the licenses of seven providers in Tucson and halted funding, Sawyer said, but a single provider could be associated with multiple sober living homes, and they don’t have to be located nearby. And pulling the licenses can actually end up causing additional harm to victims, as a woman named Victoria shared during the meeting, telling the council she was lured into one of the homes with the promise of free housing, food, transportation and medical care.
“None of those promises were fulfilled. We had about 10 girls in the house and in the end, there were only two of us left,” Victoria told the council. “With me working on mental health and the substance abuse that came with that, I ended up relapsing the last week.”
When the provider came under investigation, Victoria and the other woman were told the facility was being shut down, leaving them searching for emergency housing. She was fortunate in finding a spot at a legit treatment center, but others might not be as lucky.
Efforts to fix the problem have created an additional unintended consequence: The widespread licensure suspension has left only 10 vetted facilities to serve 35,000 tribal members across the state, said Dr. Katie Casanova, director of clinical services for the Tohono O’odham Nation's Behavioral Health.
“They’re becoming maxed out,” she said.
Veronica Boone with the Tucson Indian Center told council members that her group gets 10 to 20 reports each week from tribal partners and treatment providers of people being approached in parking lots or suspicious vans parked outside. Perpetrators have even shown up to Tucson Indian Center events, resulting in heightened security. The center will be addressing the situation at a town hall on Saturday, where they’ll present information on resources, preventive strategies and more.
The council voted to direct staff to work with a statewide task force while also exploring ways to amend the city code to ensure these types of places are operating lawfully.
But code amendments take time, task forces move slowly, and this scam doesn’t don’t show any signs of slowing down.
Delayed notification: The Pima County Sheriff’s Department failed to notify the family of an inmate who died in jail for more than two months, the Tucson Sentinel’s Natalie Robbins and Dylan Smith report. Caleb Kenowski's family was notified of his May 21 death on Tuesday, after the family spent months posting on social media, searching for information and repeatedly calling Tucson-area hospitals and the jail. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told the Sentinel that there’s no record of the family contacting the department.
And the band played on: Protestors shut down the Pima County jail’s Blue Ribbon Commission meeting Thursday morning, the Arizona Luminaria reports. The committee walked out of the room and adjourned the meeting after just four minutes, with Chair Paul Wilson telling the Luminaria the group didn’t feel like they could have a productive meeting with a band playing and audience shouting. People can still submit comments about the jail by emailing BlueRibbonCommissionFeedback@pima.gov
Pandemic funds to the rescue: The Nogales City Council is revisiting the idea of distributing some federal COVID relief funds to struggling local businesses, the Nogales International’s Angela Gervasi reports. During a meeting last week, Acting City Manager Roy Bermudez told the council he’d been meeting with the nonprofit Chicanos por la Causa to establish a process to distribute $500,000 in funds among small businesses with 15 or fewer employees.
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Student support: University of Arizona student interns are working with Desert Sports and Fitness’ Elder Rehab program to provide physical exercise and language and memory stimulation activities to people with mild to moderate dementia, Tucson Local Media’s Christina Fuoco-Karasinski reports. Interns earn academic credit or volunteer service credit hours that give them a competitive edge when applying to medical or graduate school.
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