City shutting down troubled care home, moving residents out

The city is shutting down Burris Lodge, a residential care home in central Hamilton, after a tumultuous month for the home's vulnerable residents.

The latest twist involves a third-party sale that fell through and staff not showing up to work after they didn't get paid.

A moving truck was in front of Burris Lodge on Tuesday.

I'm not gonna let them win that way. I'm not going to wreck my sobriety for these idiots.- Brian Hymans

City staff and support workers were looking for places to move the remaining nine residents of that home who had stayed even after a notice was posted about the hydro being turned off.

City staff were there overnight to make sure the residents got food and meds, said city spokesperson Ann Lamanes.

Beyond Burris, the city is also monitoring the same company's other three homes – Balsam Lodge, Anka Rest Home and St. Francis. – keeping an eye on staffing and supervision, even if overnight call is necessary, she said.

"Basically, it's 'all hands on deck,'" Lamanes said.

Earlier this month, the city sent a public health nurse and housing case manager to meet with residents in the homes to discuss "options" after they'd found food supplies and staffing issues.

The city moved to revoke the licences for the lodges for a series of violations of city bylaws in May, but agreed to let the homes stay open with new operators, as long as they'd get their licence applications in. That means the homes are not licensed, the city said.  

'If not, I guess I'm on the street'

One of the people looking for a place is Brian Hymans.

"They're trying to find me a place with a single room," he said. "If not, I guess I'm on the street."

Hymans was living at Balsam Lodge, another home owned by the same owners, when he recently had to spend a week in the hospital after having surgery to remove a ring he was wearing that caused an infection.

Some of the same issues have been in play at that home and residents got word they should think about moving. Out of the hospital, Hymans found his way to Burris, where his stuff had been moved while he was in the hospital.

"I was gonna unpack a couple bags and I thought, 'Well, maybe I won't unpack,'" he said.

'You'll never believe it - we gotta move'

Tuesday morning, another resident woke Hymans up.

"Brian, you'll never believe it," he said. "We gotta move."

Hymans said he tried to lift some of his stuff.

"How am I going to move?" he said. "I went to try and blood started coming out of my wound."

Around lunchtime on Tuesday, Hymans didn't know where he was going.

He needs his own room, he said. He's spent more than 24 years in different stints in prison, sharing a cell with other inmates.

"I've done some bad things in my life," he said. He wasn't in for violent crime, he said – he was addicted to heroin and stole to buy drugs.

Many of the residents at lodges like Burris and Balsam have a range of mental and physical disabilities.

While he said he's lived on his own in the past, Hymans has cancer, and takes daily medication for attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder, he said. 

A reminder of prison

Sharing a room, he said, would remind him of prison. He's been out for 12 years, clean for six, he said.

"That would put me in the wrong mindset for one," he said. "I don't want to get back into that mindset."

He said he said no to the stronger pain meds for his hand after surgery. He didn't want the hint of opiates in his system, he said.

But the stress of his housing situation is testing his resolve.

"This here's enough to make you want to get high," he said.

"I'm not gonna let them win that way. I'm not going to wreck my sobriety for these idiots."