Cape Canaveral company runs Homestead facility for migrant children

Comprehensive Health Services Inc.'s Cape Canaveral headquarters (Photo: Malcolm Denemark, Florida Today)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The Homestead facility housing some 1,000 migrant children is run by a Cape Canaveral company, according to News 6 partner Florida Today.

Comprehensive Health Services Inc. was contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services in February to re-open the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children as a 500-bed facility to serve as a emergency shelter for immigrant children, according to federal contracting information.

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Last month, the contract was amended to expand the facility to 1,000 beds. So far the federal government has paid the company $31 million.

It is unclear if any of the minors being housed at the facility were separated from their parents as they crossed the southern border from Mexico.

The company directed inquiries about the facility to the HHS.

Sen. Bill Nelson and  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shcultz, both Florida Democrats, were turned away from the facility when they attempted to tour it Tuesday.

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The state gave the company $600,000 in incentives to expand its Cape Canaveral headquarters in 2016. 

"I am proud to announce that Comprehensive Health Services Inc. has chosen Florida over Virginia for their expansion, which will create 150 new jobs," Scott said in a statement at the time. "I look forward to seeing CHSi's growth in Florida, and we will continue to do all we can to cut taxes and reduce burdensome regulations so more businesses can succeed in our state."

Brevard County also kicked in property-tax breaks worth up to $19,000 a year for ten years as part of the effort to lure the company to expand on the Space Coast rather than in suburban Virginia.

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"Our aggressive economic development strategy delivers advantages similar to those in the Washington, D.C., area, including Reston, Virginia," Lynda Weatherman, the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast's president and chief executive officer, said when the expansion was announced.

In February, just days before winning the contract for the Homestead facility, CHS agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle claims that overbilled the federal government.

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The company was contracted to provide certain medical services to the Internal Revenue Service. The company said the overbilling was accidental.

"We cooperated fully upon learning of the allegations. Our own review identified an accidental overbilling issue stemming from a mistake made when the IRS contract was originally set up in 2009. 


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