Baltimore agency that placed mom and 6 ‘malnourished’ kids in rowhome investigated for fraud

The Baltimore office responsible for settling a mother and her six kids in a home where police said the children were found in squalor this week was already embroiled in an investigation into alleged fraud.

The probe, which dates back to the spring, is focused on the Division of Homeownership and Housing Preservation within the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development. The office is responsible for distributing money to residents in need of home repairs and helping with rent and mortgage assistance. The group also relocates residents displaced by fires.

The agency helped place Teonna Brown, 34, and her six children, ages 1 through 9, in an East Baltimore rowhouse. When police arrived this week, they found the children unsupervised, malnourished and either partially clothed or naked, officers wrote in a report. Brown was charged with six counts of child neglect, and a Baltimore district judge ordered her held without bail on Wednesday.

Officers described the placement house as unsafe and without electricity, air conditioning and potential problems with the gas line. Authorities condemned the house.

Landlord Kimberly Motta said the house was in good condition just a few months ago.

The case has drawn attention to a small and little-known city office where three employees were terminated in mid-July, city officials confirmed.

According to emails exchanged between Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Col.onel John Herzog of Baltimore Police on June 8, city police conducted a review of the unit and found one person it believed to be involved in criminal activity.

Others in the office were believed to have committed “significant” violations of internal policy and procedures, Herzog wrote in the emails obtained by The Banner via a public information act request. He said the criminal case would be referred to the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office while policy violations would be referred to the city’s inspector general.

City officials said Thursday that the investigation began after housing officials flagged potentially troubling conduct to the mayor’s office. The investigation is still open and active.

The probe comes to light in the wake of an admission from Scott Wednesday that city employees in the same office failed to adequately follow up with Brown after they helped to relocate her and her children into the East Monument Street home.

The home was without readily available food or drinking water, as well as no working electricity, beds, air conditioning or even a stove, officers wrote in their report. The children showed signs of insect bites and dog feces were found on the floor, officers wrote.

Asked about the city’s involvement with the family, Scott said city staff should have had oversight of the family as recipients of city funds. That did not happen, he acknowledged.

“Everybody that had an opportunity to do something that did not will feel the full wrath of me and city government,” Scott said.

Motta, the landlord, rejected the report by police that the house was without electricity or a safe and reliable gas line. The rental house is owned by a couple in Silver Spring and managed by the Motta and Motta Real Estate company in Glen Burnie.

Motta said she manages more than 600 properties across the Baltimore area and routinely works with city agencies to find homes for people in need. These placements may be through a program that helps veterans, maybe people who have been homeless, come out of drug treatment or experienced a house fire, she said. The city will typically pay for a few months’ rent while the person settles in and finds a job.

So there was nothing unusual about the phone call that she received earlier this year asking for her help to place Brown and her children.

“The mayor’s office called me and said I have a family in desperate need,” Motta said.

She sent a questionnaire to gather information about the new client before matching them to the house on East Monument Street.

“When she moved in, the house was beautiful. I sent all the pictures to the mayor’s office,” Motta said. “My only job is to make sure I have a home liveable for the family.”

Police reported that the Department of Housing and Community Development returned a week or two after the family’s arrival to help Brown transfer the utilities into her name.

Motta herself visited three times and last went to the house in mid-July.

“She [Brown] was home, upstairs. The floor was sticky, you know? But the kids seemed safe. Power was on. No indication of a crisis,” she said.

By Thursday, Motta said she was sending photos and paperwork to the city to try to get the notice of condemnation lifted.

City officials said employees of the Division of Homeownership and Housing Preservation who were responsible for Brown’s initial placement are no longer with the city.

“Regardless of what kind of potential misconduct or missteps, we are seeing the result of individuals not following the proper protocols and endangering our most vulnerable residents,” Scott said Thursday. “That is categorically unacceptable.”

Staff at an East Baltimore counseling center, meanwhile, said Brown has complained about the condition of the home from the start.

Marlon Wilson, the director and co-owner of Community First Health Care Services, a mental health program, said Brown and her children came in for weekly appointments and staff was working to find them beds and other furniture. Brown complained to him about not having working air conditioning, he said.

“She wondered why they would put them in that house in that bad of a shape,” he said.

Wilson described Brown as an outspoken and caring mother who was being “slowly pulled toward despair.” When he saw the children, they were lively and did not appear malnourished, he said.

He said the last time he saw Brown was Monday, shortly after authorities took her children. He told the distraught mother to turn herself in and gave her some money to get a ride to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where the children were being evaluated on Monday. He hasn’t heard from her since.

“She was always trying to get some help,” he said. “She would come here and cry because she couldn’t get it.”

Reporters Alissa Zhu and Sara Ruberg contributed to this article.