Families scramble to find new homes for elderly parents with 24 hours' notice

Families in a small town in Quebec's Beauce region are upset they've had to go on a frantic search to find new homes for their elderly parents with only 24 hours' notice.

The Résidences de la Vallée, a privately owned seniors' home in Vallée-Jonction, 70 kilometres south of Quebec City, informed residents this week they had to find a new place to live and were to leave the premises by 4 p.m. Friday.

"It's very hard to accept. I haven't slept at all," said Fleurianne Bachand, as her son carried her belongings out of the room she had been living in for the past 18 months.

Like her 40 neighbours, the 87-year-old woman managed to secure a new apartment and will be there as of Friday night.

But she said she was discouraged to have to adjust to a new environment at her age and say good-bye to the friends she made.

"It's the unknown," she said. "It's not my home."

'Small family'

Bachand's son said he wasn't all that surprised to learn his mother would have to move, given the recent problems he saw in the administration of the home.

The residence needed to hire six employees to ensure full-time staffing, according to the home's general manager, Caroline Audet.

"We really worked hard to keep it open. I think we did everything we could," said Audet.

She said it was heartbreaking for her small team to see residents stressed out and anxious.  

"We all cried a little, I think. We're like a little family here," she said as pick-up trucks hauled away bags and furniture on Thursday afternoon.

Town loses only seniors' home

For Thérèse Beauchemin, leaving her apartment also means leaving the town where she raised her five children.

Since the Résidences de la Vallée was the only seniors' home in Vallée-Jonction, she had to look elsewhere and ended up moving to St-Joseph-de-Beauce, a 15-minute drive away.

"I've been crying a bit, but sometimes I feel OK. I have memories here that will last until I die," said Beauchemin, managing to crack a smile as she sat in the front seat of her son-in-law Claude Bisson's truck, as he drove her off to her new apartment.

Bisson said he was furious that Beauchemin and her neighbours were thrown out on the street with so little notice, sending the family into a flurry to find a new apartment and take time off work to move on a Friday.

"It makes no sense. No one was warned beforehand. I just can't believe it," he said, questioning the government's responsibility in reacting to the eviction.

'Moral obligation'

The Coalition Avenir Québec MNA for Beauce-Nord, André Spénard, also said someone should be held accountable.

He suggested the province should put in place better regulations that would force owners to give two weeks' notice before an eviction.

"There should be a moral obligation for a minimum amount of time to announce the closure of a residence," Spénard said.

Sonia Simard, the deputy director of the CISSS de Chaudière-Appalaches, said since the home is privately owned, like any other private business, its owners can close whenever they want.

"We don't have the power to say, 'You have to stay open'," Simard said.

Nonetheless, the CISSS intervened in the weeks prior to the closure to try and find solutions to the staffing shortfall.

Personnel from public long-term care homes in the region were brought in to support staff members, but the CISSS eventually sent a notice demanding the Résidences de la Vallée respect the province's regulations or close its doors.

"The owner wasn't able to respect the minimum standards," Simard said, still hopeful a new buyer could be brought in at this point.

The mayor of Vallée-Jonction, Réal Bisson, is also hopeful his town will find someone to run the establishment.

"People have already been displaced, so the harm is done, but I am working to re-open this home," said Bisson, who described the residence as an essential service for local families, as well as an important employer for the town.

Deadly fire spurs stiffer rules 

Several new rules were brought in by the province after a fire broke out in a seniors' home in L'Isle-Verte in 2014, leaving 32 dead.

Building codes have been stiffened, and staffing requirements have been increased.

Spénard said the brunt of all these costly changes ends up in the hands of the care homes' operators, with increased costs trickling down to residents.

"We forget one thing: residents don't always have the money to pay for this," Spénard said.

According to the Regroupement québécois des résidences pour aînés, which represents privately owned seniors' homes in the province, more than 370 such homes have closed since 2014.

It said many more closures are expected in the coming years, in part due to the regulations but also because of the difficulties in finding and retaining staff.