ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- Dozens of residents at an Orange Park assisted living facility are now in limbo after they found Medicaid will no longer fund their stay.
First Coast News learned 31 residents at Astoria Assisted living facility will have to find a new home.
“It’s very, very difficult at 55 years old to have to go out and reestablish oneself again,” said Patrice Cohen.
She has less than four weeks to find a place to live. She moved to Astoria last October hoping it would be her home for years to come.
But on Wednesday she received different news from management. Cohen and 30 other residents were told they had to pack their bags.
“For me in this situation, in between surgeries, having a service animal, having to find a place that accepts service animals and so on and so forth it’s just a lot of stress,” Cohen said.
First Coast News learned the owner of the facility received a letter from the state saying funding is being terminated after he was involved with a medical lab in Jacksonville that ran into some problems with the federal government. As part of the agreement, he could not be involved with federal healthcare programs like Medicaid.
We reached out to the owner but our calls have not been returned. The executive director Harry Mangini told First Coast News management just learned the news last Friday and they are also in shock.
“We won’t let anybody be on the street but we are aggressively looking to help in every possible way,” Mangini said.
On Friday, Cohen and a few others toured Noble Gardens Assisted Living Facility in Jacksonville with hopes to make that her new home.
Rhonda Hatley, the Operations Manager, is working with residents and their caseworkers to rescue as many residents as they can.
“We’re trying to figure out what her needs are and if we can really help her and then we’ll get her moved in,” Hatley said.
Dozens of residents have until June 21 to make new living arrangements.
“I don’t know how much worse this could be, except I’m not wishing to find out,” Cohen said.