Assisting living residents given 90 days to move out

By Paul L eighton Staff Writer

BEVERLY — The new owners of an assisted living facility in downtown Beverly are forcing residents to permanently move out in 90 days.

Motif by Monarch, the former Landmark at Ocean View, told its 67 residents in a letter this week that they must move out by July 19 because of plans to renovate the building. The company said it originally planned to renovate the building without closing it, but decided that the level of disruption necessitates closing for at least a year.

“We understand that this situation will impact each person reading this in a variety of ways, and we want you to know that we do not make this decision lightly and we are committed to support you through the process,” Ross Dingman, the company’s managing partner, wrote.

Paul Lanzikos, the state’s former elder affairs secretary and former executive director of North Shore Elder Services, called the 90-day notice “outrageous.” He said he has never heard of an assisted living facility forcing all of its residents to move out.

“This is not any average population that’s being displaced,” said Lanzikos, who lives in Beverly. “These are frail, at-risk individuals and disrupting them in even relatively modest ways can be problematic.”

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The new site of Motif by Monarch Senior Housing, formerly known as Landmark Senior Housing, in Beverly.

JAIME CAMPOS

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The company has not said whether residents will be able to move back once the renovations are done.

The facility at 3 Essex St. in Beverly is operated by Monarch Communities, a company based in Maryland. Monarch took over management of the facility in December, when an affiliated company bought the building for $16 million, according to Southern Essex Registry of Deeds records.

The building is known as the Briscoe building and is one of the key historic buildings in downtown Beverly. It was built in 1873 and has served as the city’s high school, public library and junior high school as well as the main building for North Shore Community College. A fire gutted the building in the early 1990s but the exterior was saved. The building became an assisted living facility in 1996 when it opened as Ocean View at Ellis Square.

Dingman said in the letter that the company is working with residents and family to find “new permanent, appropriate housing” before the closure on July 19. Representatives from several area senior facilities were at the Beverly facility to talk with residents and family members about their options, the company said.

A family outside the facility on Wednesday said the company was helping residents find a new place to live. They declined to give their names because they didn’t want it to affect how the company deals with their relative who lives there.

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, which certifies assisted living residences, said Monarch notified the agency on Monday of its intention to temporarily close.

The spokesperson said the state does not have authority to enforce lease agreements, which are private contracts between the resident and the facility. The spokesperson said assisted living facilities are private residences and, unlike skilled nursing facilities and rest homes, do not receive public funding from the state. Residents and families can file complaints with the state’s assisted living ombudsman program.

The company said it is unsure if it will accept PACE residents at the Beverly facility when it reopens. PACE is the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly that is administered by Mass Health and Medicare. The company said it is working with PACE’s third-party administrators to identify potential placement for the current PACE residents in Beverly.

Monarch said it will cover the costs associated with moving residents’ personal items if the move is within a 15-mile radius. The company said it is working with its employees to stay at the Beverly facility for the next three months and said it would “compensate them appropriately for doing so.”

Dingham said the renovations of the facility will require opening much of the building’s walls, flooring and roof to install a new roof, wiring, windows, elevators and more.

Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews. com, or on Twitter at @ heardinbeverly.

The new site of Motif by Monarch Senior Housing, formerly known as Landmark Senior Housing, in Beverly.

JAIME CAMPOS