One resident is still missing and looters have ransacked the building after the largest nursing home in St. Louis closed abruptly Dec. 15.
Northview Village Nursing Home closed without notice and implemented its emergency plan to move more than 170 residents. Residents were shuttled overnight to their new homes, many leaving belongings behind, and their relatives were not informed where they were taken.
News of the closure spread on social media, and looters began entering the building even before staff and residents were gone, a former staff member told Fox2. Police were called and staff managed to keep some items from leaving the building. Three days later, the police were called again due to people ransacking the building. A week later, calls were still coming in about copper wire being stolen from the basement.
On Dec. 26, officials with the St. Louis City Senior Fund announced they will allocate $174,000 in aid for the residents. The fund will be available to help about 85 residents with replacing incidentals and case management services.
The roughly 170 residents were transferred to a number of facilities around the city, and as of Dec. 22, one is still unaccounted for, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. A Health and Senior Services Department spokesperson, Lisa Cox, said the department "is aware" of the remaining missing resident. They also confirmed that the nursing home surrendered its license and will be ending its contract with Medicare and Medicaid.
One of the nursing home's owners, Mark Suissa, told the Post-Dispatch the facility closed because the state wasn't paying enough and blamed the staff for walking out the week before the facility closed — though workers say the accusation is untrue.
"Of course I would have done it a different way," he said of the closure. "I have other partners also involved. But unfortunately, that's the way it happened."