TAMPA, Fla. — Families who lived on base at MacDill Air Force Base have filed a lawsuit against The Michaels Organization, the company that owns and runs its privatized housing, Harbor Bay.
Those 39 military families claim they lived in mold-ridden homes and their pleas for help were met with “corporate indifference”. The complaint states the defendants have a “cartel-like hold on the housing monopoly”.
The lawsuit alleges fraud, negligence, and health problems suffered by service members and their families.
Watch the full investigation below:
Tampa Bay 28 I-Team Reporter Kylie McGivern broke the story last week, taking you inside three of those homes.
Read Kylie McGivern's previous coverage on MacDill Air Force Base:
- Families living on MacDill Air Force Base come forward with concerns about mold
- 'There's no excuse': Congressman promises action for MacDill Air Force Base families concerned about mold
The 218-page lawsuit reads like a book and tells the stories of families who claim they didn't know they were living with toxic mold until they developed health problems they couldn't explain.
“I literally felt like I was dying. For months. Months," Coast Guard Lt. Erick Proveaux told the I-Team.
The lawsuit says, in the Spring of 2024, Lt. Proveaux's health deteriorated, including "blood-pressure spikes that led to multiple emergency room visits and a three-day hospitalization."
According to the suit, in June 2025, an independent inspector tested and inspected his home and "think mold coated the entire HVAC system, and the home was deemed 'unfit for human occupancy'."
Lt. Proveaux made several calls to report the problem and when Harbor Bay eventually sent a contractor to the home, according to the lawsuit, "the workers told Proveaux that as soon as they opened the panel, the smell nearby knocked them off their feet."
The suit says, "They also asked if they could pray for him and his family."
Army Maj. John Jensen is another plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“My daughter coughed like consistently for the last two, three years," he said.
Before moving into his home in 2021, the lawsuit says the Harbor Bay housing office told Jensen that they needed time to "turn the house" from the previous tenant.
Jensen's wife Amanda "suffered from debilitating migraines" and "now experiences tremors requiring neurological treatment" according to the suit. Jensen "experienced fatigue and mental health issues" and their daughter "developed respiratory issues at Thanksgiving 2024 that persisted until they vacated the home."
On the day of their move-out, the Jensens received the seven-year history of their home from Harbor Bay. According to the lawsuit, the document revealed the home had been flooded and underwent purported remediation immediately before their move-in, and "that previous tenants had reported mold, with one writing, 'My wife and I have been sick. Can you check for mold'."
"There wasn't, 'Hey, we acknowledge that there's mold in your house. That's a problem on post,' you know, nothing, nothing. Nothing. It's silence. The silence is deafening," Maj. Jensen said when he invited the I-Team into his home before turning over the keys.
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Juan Torres also moved his family into Harbor Bay in 2021.
“This is a four year, like commitment. Where I said, 'I trust you with my life, I trust you with my health.' And you know, it's just… gone," he told the I-Team.
The lawsuit says in June 2025, "the Torres family hired a third-party mold inspector. Testing revealed extremely toxic levels of mold throughout the home, including Stachybotrys — black mold — in the HVAC system."
Torres said he was in shock when he found out.
"I was in shock because my wife would tell me all these things about being sick and her headaches getting worse over time and I’m like, well maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it is the allergies," Torres said.
He told the I-Team, up until the point of the test results, he was a skeptic.
"It takes you to a moment where you're like, I can't believe that the people that I entrusted my family to, fail me. And — makes you angry," Torres said.
At 5 p.m. on Monday, a spokesperson for The Michaels Organization and Harbor Bay at MacDill emailed the I-Team the following statement:
"We are not in receipt of this litigation, and it would therefore be inappropriate for us to comment at this time. Our priority has always been and continues to be the well-being of our Harbor Bay residents, staff, and community."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for MacDill Air Force Base told the I-Team in an emailed statement:
"MacDill leadership remains actively engaged in holding Harbor Bay and The Michaels Organization accountable to their contract. The safety and security of our service members and their families remain a top priority."
According to the lawsuit, The Michaels Organization took over ownership of a company that had a 50-year lease to privatize military housing at MacDill in 2021. That agreement is not due to expire until the year 2057.
Michaels Lawsuit Filed by ABC Action News
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Kylie McGivern works tirelessly to get results for the people of Tampa Bay. Her reporting has exposed flaws in Florida’s corrections system and unemployment process. Reach out to Kylie and our I-Team if you need help holding state leaders accountable.
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