OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Council approved a job training and housing program that will be run by an Arizona nonprofit organization tied to a Phoenix healthcare clinic suspected of fraud.
The vote approved a $700 million development that would include multiple residential towers, along with commercial and retail space in Oklahoma City.
As part of the plan, the developer brought in a nonprofit called Aspiring Anew Generation to run a job training program and low-income housing solution. The organization would have 134 units in the development available for subsidized housing.
Joanne Carras, a board member of the nonprofit, gave a presentation to the council two weeks ago. She was accompanied by Jessica Stanford, the founder and chair of the nonprofit.
“We have the nonprofit that provides housing for those that are other either unsheltered or chronically homeless," Carras said in her presentation.
According to Arizona Corporation Commission records, Aspiring Anew Generation was founded by Jessica Stanford as a 501(c)(3). She also founded a separate for-profit LLC with the same name in Arizona.
That Arizona clinic is a provider for Arizona's Medicaid program, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS).
It was recently placed on the AHCCCS list of suspended providers as part of an investigation into alleged fraud.
12News obtained this letter that spells out the allegations against the provider.
But Arizona Department of Health Services inspectors went to the address on file for the Aspiring Anew Generation clinics in July. An inspector's report said it was the address they had on file for inspections, but the inspector found the building locked and the voicemail on file was full.
The office was also labeled as a marketing company, though a paper taped to the door also identified it as the corporate office of Aspiring Anew Generation. The inspector wrote that no one could be reached for the inspection, and noted that this could result in "patient harm."
12News spoke to Joanne Carras off camera Tuesday. Carras said the nonprofit group had no connection to the clinic provider. She also said there was no fraud on either side.
An AHCCCS spokesperson tells 12News all the allegations that lead to a provider being placed on the suspended list must be reviewed by an outside law enforcement agency. The spokesperson would not comment specifically on this case.
Meanwhile, a local independent media outlet reported on Stanford's clinic and nonprofit the day before the city council was to vote on the plan. Council member James Cooper brought up that reporting during Tuesday's meeting.
In the end, Cooper was one of only two who voted against the proposal.
“There was no safeguards in our deal that ensured the housing was going to take place in the ways they were saying it would," Cooper told 12News, "there were no safeguards in the deal that prioritize that workforce housing.”
Stanford did not return texts and emails for comment.
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