Helpless Elders are Being Exposed to Foreclosure Evictions

 

 

With more and more owners of elder-care homes defaulting the occupants – the helpless elders are being exposed to foreclosure evictions. A loophole in the law is being taken advantage of by the owners who are also the managers of these homes.

Anthony Chicotel a lawyer with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform said, “Who is minding the shop? The law doesn’t really say. There’s no obligation for them to do anything if they fall into financial distress.” Thus neither the occupants, their relations and nor the staff may know if the house is in foreclosure or not. It is only at the eleventh hour that an eviction notice may catch them unawares.

Chicotel explained that armed enforcement personnel could use force to remove the occupants from these elderly care homes “without any notice, without preparation, without any arrangements for an alternative residence. Not only are they losing their home, but they are losing the services that allow them to live.”

The Executive Director of Ombudsman Services of San Mateo, Tippy Irwin, said that this practice of eviction senior helpless citizens without prior warning is something “unprecedented.” So far her firm has handled eight cases relating to foreclosed elder care homes. In most of them no prior notice had been given to the occupants, their relatives or the staff.

She narrated one case and said, “In one residence we got wind that the sheriff had issued a three day notice to move people in the house and that was a Friday. We had to move them all in one day. It’s not the way it should happen. Every one of these owners has been in denial. They themselves are going through hell. They’re losing their homes and their businesses. Not one of them has acknowledged what’s happening.”

One of the sufferers is Brenda Wing. She went last February to see her octogenarian father in Northstar Manor care home of Woodland. On the front door she saw an auction notice pasted. She contacted the manager, Stephanie Khan who assured her that there was a misunderstanding as they were refinancing. On 7th April an eviction notice was issued and again this time Khan talked about misunderstanding. The argument then became ugly and heated. Wing recounted, “She was really angry and said, ‘you’re asking me about personal finances!’ I said ‘no, I’m asking you if my dad is going to be put out on the street.’ It was such a hideous conversation that I had to hang up.”

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