As employees of St. Mary's Villa (SMV), many of us for 20-plus years, we are feeling extremely frustrated with the publicity surrounding St. Mary's Villa.
First the CO incident being dragged up after 14 months and in the same week, the so-called "eviction" of 10 enriched housing tenants.
In 1992, SMV opened a new unit to their building, thus leaving St. Mary's Wing a 24-bed unit, empty. It was decided then to offer low-cost housing to fairly independent seniors. Some of these seniors occupied two rooms (a living room and a bedroom with a bathroom). They also had their own dining room, with meals provided by SMV. These seniors came in with the understanding they would receive no nursing care, but could have Home Care if needed. This area situated inside SMV was known as Enriched Housing. This is the area the 10 tenants were supposedly "evicted" from.
In our opinion, "evicted" does not mean you find these 10 tenants homes, give financial compensation for the first month, and top off the remaining rent for a year, pay damage deposits, hire a moving company and buy equipment for their new home. This is what is being done by the SHR, and they are being told by the 10 tenants and their families they were "mistreated" and SHR has "no compassion."
Sure, you're upset with the short notice, but you would have been extremely upset if you were left with no help and had to do it all on your own. Then we would tend to agree with you regarding being "mistreated."
Do we care for those 10 tenants? Sure we do. Will we miss seeing them? Sure we will. However, we feel the SHR has compensated them generously. We also do not feel that they should be compensated after the year as some are asking. There are many seniors that did not have the joy of low-cost housing for the past few years, and now these 10 tenants are joining them in paying for higher-cost living. There is a year now for families to look for financially suitable living arrangements.
What about those 32 Dust Wing residents, their families and the staff who care for them? Many of the 32 require total care. Total care means there are those who can't walk, some can't talk, or feed themselves. They require nursing care 24-7 and will be moving to those rooms once occupied by those 10 tenants due to the structure of the Dust Wing floor. If a mishap should happen in the meantime, what will be said then - SHR did not move faster?
We apologize if we have offended anyone, but the sensationalism of this whole story is leaving a negative impact on SMV and it should not. Everything is being done for the safety of those 32 residents and the staff who care for them. Our only thought now is if the SHR would ever contemplate offering assisted living again in any long-term care facility. Please remove a wall and separate it into two buildings, so another home does not get the bad publicity we are getting.
