ST. LOUIS — Family members are still searching for their loved ones days after Northview Village Nursing Home closed, residents were moved to new facilities without warning and workers were left unpaid and unemployed.Â
Workers, union officials and city leaders gathered in front of the building Tuesday morning to air their anger at the sudden closure of Northview Village Nursing Home, a major long-term care facility on the city's north side.Â
The building had been left open since Friday, with people going in and out to collect their belongings, residents' records and medication, and supplies and equipment. The entryway has been boarded up by the city, with a "no trespassing" sign on it.
Nursing home paperwork was stuck in bushes, wheelchairs and parts were abandoned and trash littered the ground outside Tuesday morning. Â
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Lenny Jones, state director for SEIU Healthcare, said about 175 residents were transported from the facility between 5 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday. They were brought to more than a dozen different nursing homes in the area.
Some family members are still unsure where the residents were relocated to, workers and union officials said.
Marjorie Moore, executive director of VOYCE, the regional nursing home ombudsman program, said her staff were still tracking down residents. Some were transported to facilities counties away.
Workers described working Friday, and hearing that they would receive paper checks, because the direct deposit hadn’t arrived in their accounts that morning. The checks never arrived, they said, and later in the afternoon, vans from other area nursing homes started arriving, to bring residents to other facilities.
Jones said Northview’s owners have “completely, completely failed us.â€
“There has to be accountability,†he said.
Alderwoman Sharon Tyus said that she was establishing a fund for displaced workers.
“For the love of God, pay these people their money,†said Caroline Hawthorne, a registered nurse and supervisor at Northview. “Where is the compassion?â€