A Miami-Dade grand jury blasted the state for allowing troubled assisted living facilities to stay open instead of reaching into its arsenal to crack down on the worst abusers, including imposing steeper fines, shutting down troubled homes and weeding out rogue operators.

The report, released Thursday, put the blame squarely on the Agency for Health Care Administration for permitting dangerous homes to keep their doors open and not “doing a more effective job of enforcement.”

“Revoke the licenses. Impose the fines. Hit the offenders where it hurts most, in their pockets,” said the 33-page report, the result of a two-month investigation by the grand jury prompted by a Miami Herald series, Neglected to Death, published in May.

Citing an “explosion” in growth of ALFs in the past five years, jurors said the state needs to assume a greater role in protecting thousands of frail residents in the years to come, and encouraged AHCA to be more proactive in saving lives and tapping the resources of other state agencies.

“You’re the lead agency — then lead. Be a lead agency,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. “These are the most helpless and the most vulnerable.”

The Herald investigation found dozens of frail elders died from abuse and neglect — at least 70 since 2002 — while AHCA allowed nearly all of the homes to stay open.

The report, titled “ALFs: a Call for Greater Interagency Communication and a Cry for More Citizen Volunteers,” said that AHCA not only needed to get tougher on troubled homes, but ensure that those operators who squeeze out maximum profits while providing shoddy care “will not be allowed to operate in this state.”

Among the recommendations:

• AHCA needs to track all ALF administrators with troubled histories so that they can’t jump from home to home;

• AHCA needs to move faster when it finds homes are hurting their residents by cracking down on facilities with steep fines, suspensions and stripping them of their licenses;

• AHCA needs to work more closely with two agencies that investigate problems in homes — the Department of Children & Families and state Elder Affairs ombudsman program — since AHCA is the only agency that can discipline the facilities.

• DCF, the agency that takes abuse hotline calls, should pass on all complaints of elder abuse and neglect to the state Attorney General’s Office for possible prosecution.

• The ombudsman program, which consists of trained volunteers who advocate on behalf of vulnerable adults, must continue to do full-fledged inspections of ALFs and not limit its role to simply interviewing residents to see if there are problems.

• ALF residents should enjoy the same protections as those in nursing homes, including the right to appeal an eviction.

Elizabeth Dudek, secretary of AHCA, needed more time to read the report before commenting, said Shelisha Coleman, spokeswoman for the agency.

The grand jury report is the latest examination this year of an industry that has been the focus of a special Senate investigation and a governor’s task force — all calling for AHCA to take a tougher stance on homes that repeatedly break the law.