North Dakota retirement home gives residents 6 weeks to find new home following closure announcement

LIDGERWOOD, N.D. — As the vacations close to, about two dozen residents at a Richland County retirement dwelling are getting kicked out of their dwelling.

It has created anger locally as households need to know why they had been blindsided by a chapter and the place the cash has gone.

Twenty residents on the Dakota Estates Retirement Heart in Lidgerwood have been given six weeks to discover a new dwelling.

“I do not know the place I am going to go,” mentioned Dakota Estates resident Lorraine Fuka.

Dakota Estates is on the point of chapter and can shut on Dec. 31.

For Fuka, which means leaving “paradise.”

“We do not prepare dinner, we do not clear, we do not do something besides loosen up,” she mentioned.

The board who oversees the retirement dwelling and in the end made the choice has solely served just a few months.

Board member Jim Holmly mentioned he has discovered the writing has really been on the wall for about six years, however COVID aid cash supplied a short lived bandage. He mentioned a part of the rationale the retirement house is broke is as a result of the lease is simply too low. Solely half of the house is crammed as a result of the power is previous and outdated.

“The silence is de facto unnerving,” mentioned Sophia Zaft, Fuka’s granddaughter.

Volunteer board members have been operating the house since final 12 months when the administrator left and there was no cash to rent a brand new one.

Final month, the 19 present staff had been advised there might not be sufficient cash to pay them.

There have been accusations the previous longtime administrator misused funds, however Holmly mentioned that might be simply “hypothesis.”

As a result of Dakota Estates has accepted cash from the U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement, an audit is probably going.

Which may be powerful, nevertheless. Most of the monetary data are gone and a pc has been scrubbed.

“We’re up to now within the gap, we won’t even do something about it now,” Zaft mentioned.

The Richland County Veterans Service Workplace is working with seven vets who dwell at Dakota Estates. Representatives from retirement properties in Wahpeton and Hankinson have began working with households to rehouse residents.

“I assumed I’d die in Lidgerwood, not Fargo,” Fuka mentioned with amusing.

The 98-year-old has lived in Lidgerwood for almost her entire life.

“I’m hoping some miracle that they’ll preserve it open for us,” Fuka mentioned.

Lidgerwood Mayor Dale Krause mentioned town will do no matter it could in its energy to try to save the retirement heart.

A developer has been trying on the website to doubtlessly construct flats.