JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Last week, Jacksonville City Councilman Reggie Brown made several statements about Eureka Gardens and Washington Heights, the subsidized housing projects in Jacksonville that have been under local and federal scrutiny for substandard conditions.
Among his remarks, Brown said the media was exploiting residents of the properties owned by Global Ministries Foundation. Brown has represented District 10, which includes Washington Heights, since 2008.
The I-TEAM received a lot of viewer feedback about his remarks and decided to look closer at some of this comments.
Watch I-TEAM's initial interview with Reggie Brown
Tenants have turned to the I-TEAM for help for seven months, calling with the request to investigate the condition of their homes. After several I-TEAM reports, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, Councilman Garrett Dennis and most recently Councilman Tommy Hazouri have all vowed to help.
“Let me be very clear, that I want to send a message," Brown said last week. "I’m not into exploiting the residents that are economically challenged. I don’t believe that it takes the media to get the job done."
Brown added that he does not feel that Curry, Dennis and Hazouri have contributed to exploiting the people of Eureka Gardens through the media. But he does want to handle the problem without bringing in news cameras.
“I said my position. My position, if I can get things done without bringing the media and the cameras to the residents that are economically challenged, I will do that,” Brown said last week "I am not going to exploit the residents. We do not need (to bring) the cameras on into their living quarters.”
Last week, Brown told the I-TEAM he had a copy of GMF's strategic plan for improving the properties. Since News4Jax has been trying to get that plan for weeks and if it was provided to a city councilman, it would be public record, we caught up with Brown at a council meeting Tuesday to ask if he could provide it.
"I will tell you what I did do," Brown said. "I reached out to Mr. Hamlet's local office and asked them to provide a copy for you. I physically don't have it."
DOCUMENT: Councilman Brown's email to Lynnsey Gardner
Last week, Brown said, "If I had to live there and I was not satisfied, I would cancel my voucher and go somewhere else."
Jacksonville Housing Authority Director Fred McKinnies said that's not possible. If a tenant left Washington Heights or Eureka Gardens, they would lose their subsidy.
Tuesday, Brown said he didn't know that.
"If I had known, I wouldn't have said it," Brown said.
Brown also claimed Thursday that he was actively calling code enforcement about problems with Washington Heights. The city told the I-TEAM they had no record of any calls from Brown to 630-CARE, the city's main number for code enforcement complaints, since September 2015, when News4Jax began investigating the GMF properties.
On Tuesday, asked if he was dishonest about his contact with code enforcement, Brown responded: "Absolutely not. I will tell you this: I probably have the most calls for CARE, not just phone calls and emails within the CARE system, but if I'm out riding the community, those are not documented occurrences."
Brown did share his vision for Washington Heights.
"It's time to demolish those apartments and provide the taxpayers, those that are in need of service, a better quality of life," Brown said. "I would like Washington Heights to look similar to Durkeyville."
Brown also was concerned about what the I-TEAM revealed Monday about mold at Eureka Gardens: that 70 percent of the units there had evidence of mold spores when they were professionally tested.
"To me, that's a state of emergency," Brown said. "Let's stop talking about it and let's just move these people. But it's a funding issue."
Asked if a similar mold report should be done on Washington Heights, Brown said yes.
"It's noted. We can do that, so I'm going to call for a multi-unit inspection," Brown said.