Assemblymember Simon Pushes Bill To Study The Effects Of Long-Term Care Facility Closures

In the wake of the situation at the Prospect Park Residence, an assisted living facility whose owner attempted to sell it, giving elderly residents just 90 days to relocate, a local Assemblymember is hoping to pass legislation that will keep similar events from happening in the future.

Bill A.6390, sponsored by Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, would create a temporary state commission to study the effects of closures of long-term care facilities on residents and their families. Part of the reason for the measure, says Simon, is that in New York City in particular, the Prospect Park Residence situation could repeat itself, as owners of buildings housing such facilities may see a similar attraction in selling in such a hot real estate market.

“The situation at 1 Prospect Park West is very troubling, and it has dramatically impacted people’s lives — not just the residents, but their families who worked very hard to find the right facilities for their relatives,” Simon told us. “As we as a state deal with more and more seniors, we are going to have to provide more and better facilities, not fewer.

“This bill would allow us to study the trends,” she continued, “and figure out what policy changes might need to occur to better protect seniors, giving them, and their families, a choice. If nobody is looking at the situation, there’s no way we can know how we might be able to fix it.”

The bill, which would keep long-term care facilities from closing, converting to any other use, or reducing staffing levels until a year after the commission reports its findings and issues recommendations, was approved this week by the Assembly’s Aging Committee, and Simon is hopeful it will make it though the legislature.

“This is the kind of issue that affects everyone,” she said. “It’s bipartisan — we all have parents. It should be an easy thing to get behind.”

Still, its benefits are a long way off, and won’t come soon enough to help the seven residents still left at the embattled local facility, who will, somewhat happily, be able to remain there in the near-term. Last week, a judge appointed a temporary receiver who will run the facility and fix the deplorable conditions the owner, Haysha Deitsch, had allowed to happen. The Brooklyn Eagle reports the seniors will eventually still be required to move, but that “a new closure plan must take into account their needs and preferences.”

Now the ultimate goal, according to Simon, is to keep our growing population of seniors safe from similar incidents.

“We need to make sure we don’t let something like that happen again,” she said.