Five group homes. Two scandals. Health Department program under microscope

The Minnesota Department of Health’s role in the state’s booming group home industry has been at the center of two of the biggest news stories in Minnesota over the past week.

On Thursday, the Health Department revoked the licenses of three group homes where Sekou Dukuly, a high-ranking government official in Liberia, was licensed as the group home’s director up until last week. The move followed one from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which suspended payments to the facilities in response to what it described as “credible allegations of Medicaid fraud.”

An MPR News/APM Reports investigation found that Dukuly has had a hand in 24 group homes over the past decade and the state has paid group home companies linked to him at least $36 million. In 2024, Liberian President Joseph Boakai appointed Dukuly to run the country’s government owned ports.

The Health Department also revoked the licenses of two group homes unrelated to Dukuly following allegations from prosecutors that Homefelt Assisted Living facilities were connected to a sex trafficking operation in the Twin Cities.

An indictment filed Monday also alleged that the group home company fraudulently billed Medicaid for over $1 million. Among the defendants in the case was Andrea Sampson, a former assistant Anoka County attorney

Investigators with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension found that two properties linked to Homefelt Assisted Living, including one of the group homes shuttered this week, were allegedly used to traffic women.

The group homes associated with Dukuly and Sampson were all licensed under the same Health Department program, which classifies them as assisted living facilities. The department only began licensing group homes in 2021.

“People residing in an assisted living facility in Minnesota deserve to receive the best possible care and have reassurance that facilities are being held to the highest standards for health and safety,” the Health Department said in a statement. “MDH will continue to work closely with our partners to ensure the health and safety of residents as these actions move forward.”

The Health Department licenses approximately 1,600 assisted living facilities with five or fewer residents. An earlier MPR News/APM Reports investigation found that since late 2022, the Health Department has investigated the deaths of at least 32 people in the facilities it licenses.

Historically in Minnesota, group homes have been overseen by the Department of Human Services. But since 2009, there’s been a moratorium in place prohibiting the department from licensing any new group homes.

Despite the moratorium, the industry continued to grow. Providers were able to seek exemptions from the Department of Human Services, but the newer Health Department licensing program offered an easier path for group home entrepreneurs. And the program has fueled the industry’s rapid growth in the northwestern metro area, which has the highest concentration of group homes in the state.

No matter which state agency licenses the group homes, the Department of Human Services pays the bills, because it administers the state’s Medicaid program, also called Medical Assistance. That means Health Department-licensed group homes are jointly overseen by both agencies.

“We can require that you shouldn’t be having two agencies in charge of one provider, and this is part of my idea to streamline things,” Minnesota’s DFL candidate for governor, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in an interview on MPR News Tuesday. Both candidates for Minnesota governor, Klobuchar and Republican Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth, said Minnesota’s group home industry needs more oversight — especially facilities licensed by the Health Department.

In May, the Minnesota Legislature set aside $150,000 for the Health Department to find a new way to license group homes currently classified as assisted living facilities.

Reporting interns Ahmed Hassan and Lili Euzet contributed to this story.