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Losing Hope: Outgoing tenants of low-income, accessible complex in Greeley worry about what comes next

Greeley Tribune - 2/25/2023

Feb. 25—The 28 residents of Hope Apartments in Greeley all have different stories on how and why the low-income, accessible apartments became home.

But there is one thing they all have in common: they're having a hard time saying goodbye to a place they expected to call home for the rest of their lives.

After Adeo, the nonprofit overseeing the apartments, decided to renovate the apartments to cater to people with brain injuries, Hope residents will have to find a new home by July.

About 20 residents with a variety of disabilities and low incomes gathered to share their concerns about how they will find new homes amid a lack of affordable and accessible housing in the area, as well as fears they'll lose the independence and community they found at the Hope Apartments.

Hope Cassidy started the Greeley Center for Independence — a nonprofit dedicated to the health and welfare of disabled people — in the late 70s after seeing a need for independent living options for people living with disabilities. She created full-time assisted apartments that were paraplegic-accessible and had nursing teams providing 24/7 care. Today, the apartment complexes — one of which is the 31 accessible units of Hope Apartments, at 2730 28th Ave. — serve more than 100 people.

In 2020, the Greeley Center for Independence rebranded to Adeo. Since Hope's passing and the rebranding, her children, Rob Cassidy and Cara Machina, have worked to advance her mission of meeting the needs of the disabled community.

Back in December, Adeo notified tenants the board was exploring the idea of repurposing the facility, which would require the 28 residents to move out before July 1. The letter of notice received immediate backlash from people at Hope Apartments, their families and other community members. On Feb. 10, the board voted to proceed with the project, this time announcing the plans to build a supportive living program for people with brain injuries. Construction on the property is expected to begin in August.

Adeo board members said the nonprofit has actively supported tenants in finding new living options to meet their needs since the initial announcement — a sentiment that residents are refuting. Adeo will provide relocation assistance for residents, including covering fees for up to three housing applications per resident, assisting with applications, communicating with case managers, apartment managers and housing voucher providers on tenants' behalf, communicating with family and helping tenants and their families with moving resources.

Adeo officials have explained the repurpose is to help serve an underserved population in northern Colorado, highlighting the nonprofit has expertise among its ranks in the area of brain injuries.

"Adeo's primary purpose is to elevate life for individuals with brain injuries," Board President Deborah Sergesketter said. "The new supportive living program will allow us to better fulfill this mission while providing expert care to this underserved population."

Stephen's Farm in Greeley, an Adeo facility that supports 20 people living with brain injuries, has more than 60 people on waiting lists, Sergesketter said.

However, many residents, former employees and Hope's children are alleging that Adeo is focusing on revenue, rather than helping a hurting population.

"We're kicking out people with disability to service people with disabilities," Rob said. "That doesn't make any sense."

Adeo's Executive Director Sarita Reddy and Sergesketter met with tenants on Feb. 13 to inform them of the official decision to reconstruct the building into a brain-injury facility.

Doug Peters, a 10-year quadriplegic resident of Hope Apartments, looked around the room of people at the meeting and saw most people, like himself, had some sort of physical or mobility disability.

"I saw a room full of people, the vast majority with a variety of disabilities, still in shock and disbelief," Peters said. "All were still grappling with the idea that they were about to be displaced."

Fearful faces of Hope Apartments

Finding a place that provides the same level of safety, community, accessibility and affordability in Greeley has proved challenging for each tenant.

The tenants have only about five months to find a new place. Julie Rieken, co-executive director of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, said this isn't enough time.

"Why did they have to give so little notice, given the severe limitations of the tenants?" Rieken asked. "To do this in less than 18 to 24 months is ridiculous."

Nationwide, less than 1% of housing is accessible to people who use wheelchairs, according to a recent study conducted by the Office of Policy Development and Research'sMultidisciplinary Research Team. As Hope tenants look for new housing, they're finding a similar trend in northern Colorado.

Peters moved into Hope Apartments after he became paralyzed from the chest down following an accident in 2012. Since the news of displacement, Peters has reached out to 15 alternate housing options across Greeley that are not only fully accessible but also affordable for his Section 8 housing. He is on at least eight waiting lists.

Peters said he can qualify for a few 60-plus and disabled communities, but many have a waiting period of two to three years.

Because of limited opportunities, the next best alternative is moving in with family or a nursing home. But for Peters, like most tenants, a nursing home would be the last resort because that would mean losing independent living. A nursing home is also hard to find due to a statewide nursing home shortage stemming from full capacities and waiting lists. Greeley, in particular, is hurting after the Good Samaritan Society — Bonell Community, one of the largest nursing homes in the area, closed last year.

Even in Denver, which has higher capacity and more services, Rieken said, it's hard to find agencies that will take high-needs people on unless they have a family member living with them as a backup.

Redyy mainly suggested tenants check out Cityline Station, a newly redeveloped apartment community in Greeley. There are 70 units open at the complex, according to Sergesketter.

Though Cityline has availability and may work for some, others are having difficulty qualifying for, affording or getting into an apartment.

Dimas Macias, a six-year Hope Apartments resident who uses a wheelchair, has an apartment lined up at Cityline. But his main concern is not just finding affordable housing, it's securing affordable housing.

His application is in progress as he awaits his Section 8 housing voucher. Because of his financial situation — and especially since he only has five months to save up for moving costs — he is worried about the potential move.

The apartments require a large deposit as well as an income requirement, many residents indicated.

Most low-income residents, including Macias, aren't allowed to have more than $2,000 in their bank accounts or they can lose their benefits.

Adeo has offered to help pay for some application fees and is giving back all of the deposits the tenants paid before moving into Hope Apartments. But Macias wants to know why they aren't helping with the bigger expenses, including paying the deposit for new places to live.

Moving is expensive, especially for people with disabilities. Rieken said many of the tenants who are on disability benefits are in need of significant support. She said Adeo should propose paying someone to help with the move.

Sergesketter said Adeo hopes to provide more resources for moving, such as actually moving people's belongings.

In addition, an operations associate who has worked with tenants for the past several years will continue to serve as a point of contact for residents of Hope Apartments. Her job is now to help everyone at Hope Apartments find a place to live, Sergesketter assured. She is working with every resident to help them navigate housing eligibility, as well as waivers and vouchers.

Sergesketter said three or four tenants have found places to live, but those are all works in progress.

"We're committed to these people," Sergesketter said. "We know them. We've helped some of them for many years. So we're not going to have anybody out on the street. We're going to make every effort we can to help them."

In addition to bigger expenses, some tenants living with disabilities require more accessible appliances in their apartments than others, which will cost money.

Margaret Dorn, a caregiver supervisor for Front Range Home Care who provides care to six Hope Apartments tenants, said her issue with Cityline is the apartments advertise ADA-accessible units, but that doesn't mean they're fully accessible.

Many ADA-accessible units offer wider doors and additional conveniences, but the classification typically doesn't include features such as full roll-in showers, which a few Hope Apartment residents need. To acquire a fully-accessible apartment via bathroom modifications, Cityline requires the costs to come out of the tenant's pocket.

And if a tenant with disabilities moves out after repurposing an apartment to make it fully accessible, that tenant must pay to arrange it back to the way it was before their renovations.

While Macias doesn't require a roll-in shower, he is unsure how many, if any, adjustments he will have to make to the apartment he is expected to get.

Tenant Nancy Dieken is also waiting to hear back about securing an apartment at Cityline, according to her brother Jim Dieken, who doesn't think she will qualify because she has to prove she has a monthly income two-and-a-half times the rent. Nancy has lived at Hope Apartments for 30 years, Jim said. About 35 years ago, she was in a car collision that left her with a brainstem injury. She is unable to talk or walk.

"It's been a long time. We didn't really feel we were going to have to do this again," Jim said about finding his sister a safe place to live. "It's frustrating."

Another brain-injured tenant, Ed Antuna, is emotional about leaving behind his home of 29 years — Hope Apartments. He is on a waiting list for three apartments in Greeley, not including Cityline, which he can't afford.

"It's not right," Antuna said.

Casey Bator, a tenant for many years, has faced similar dilemmas to other tenants in finding Section 8 housing in Greeley. But unlike many others, Casey is mobile, so he doesn't need to worry about accessibility.

But finding nearby low-income apartments remains a challenge, according to his mother, Tannis Bator.

Tannis indicated the Creekstone Apartments, nearby Section 8 housing, has a long waiting list.

A Creekstone employee confirmed the waiting list for a one-bedroom is at 60-80 people. He also said many people from Hope Apartments have reached out about housing.

Loss of community, independence

When Adeo told residents to leave the apartments, Macias was shocked. He planned to live at the complex for the rest of his life — a sentiment shared by most at the complex.

Antuna said the hardest part is moving away from the friendships he's made over the years. He will miss the sense of community, from assembling for a potluck on Christmas to hosting summer barbeques.

"Everybody knows everybody," he said. "We watch out for each other."

After Antuna's accident, his mom was worried about caring for Antuna. But worries went away when Antuna moved into the Greeley Center for Independence's apartment complexes, where people were looking out for one another.

Tannis is uneasy about her son losing the community and independence he's found at Hope Apartments.

When Casey was hospitalized at 2 years old after he had a congenital flap of skin that didn't cement to his intestinal wall and some of his intestines cut off the blood supply. While being treated, Casey was without oxygen to his brain for a long time. He suffered seizures for three days, and he was put into a medically-induced coma.

He has had physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy since his initial recovery and has continued to improve in many ways, Tannis said. He has processing, memory and motor planning problems, which is why she worries about her son living at a new location.

Hope Apartments has made it easy for Casey to initiate conversations, something he struggles with, according to Tannis. But tenants at Hope Apartments know him and talk to him daily, meaning he would lose that community if he moved to a larger complex that wasn't completely centered around independent living for disabilities.

"He will be definitely isolated because that's just the way apartment complexes are," Tannis said.

A lot of the residents, including Macias, Peters and Casey, want to stay in Greeley because it's home and a perfect spot to live independently. Peters said it's where his community is — including his church and grocery store, all within rolling distance from his apartment.

"All my activities are really centered around this area," Peters said. "So I'm just questioning whether I'm willing at all to move to a part of town that isn't close to what I do."

Parallel to Peters, Tannis calls the area around Hope Apartments Casey's "zone of independence" because he's learned where and when to walk to places. Living at Hope Apartments, he walks to his part-time job at Cinemark, his Vasa physical therapy class, his parent's home and the credit union.

If we have a brain injury, can we move in?

Adeo serves 20 people with brain injuries with specialized housing and services, according to Reddy. More than 60 people locally and from across the country are on the waiting list.

Though Adeo wants to make sure brain-injured community members are accommodated, Jim said, some people living at Hope Apartments, his sister Nancy included, have brain injuries.

A few tenants are eligible for brain-injury waivers, Sergesketter confirmed, but they haven't pursued it before — something the board is encouraging.

The board is working on getting one resident a brain injury waiver so they can move her to Stephens Farm, where they are leaving a room open for her, according to Sergesketter.

But there are a few issues brain-injured Hope residents have faced when trying to figure out if they qualify for the new facility.

Even if brain-injured tenants could continue living at the apartments, Rob said, they would still have to find a place to live until the renovations are expected to be completed, in 2025. That would mean tenants would need to leave for two years and then come back.

Tannis asked Adeo if her son could remain where he is and live in the brain injury facility since Casey qualifies. She was told they could place him at the bottom of the waiting list.

Casey is one of the residents who would also need a brain injury referral if he wants to live at the Adeo facility, which Tannis said she is working on getting. However, she is questioning whether she trusts the nonprofit enough to keep her son under their services.

Even those who may qualify, Machina said, are still left to find alternate housing with a lack of support.

'Money-driven' decision

Rob believes the people forced to leave their homes will have a harder time replacing what's being offered at Hope Apartments than the people Adeo is putting in.

"Displacing a community that doesn't have as many options to make room for a community that does, arguably have more options, to me, is very counterintuitive," Rob said.

In a lot of cases, people can come back from their traumatic head injuries to live normal lives with their families, according to Rob. He said there are a lot of living options available for head-injured people, including places like Hope Apartments, which are necessary spots for severe cases of head injuries.

Sergesketter argues there are home health care agencies and staffing agencies now for aging demographics, which entails more availability at assisted living facilities. She argued brain injuries take much more supervision, and they require a different care plan than other types of disabilities.

When Hope Apartments was first imagined, Sergesketter said, there was more of a one-stop-shop for people with spinal cord injuries. They could get their care and their housing in one location. But 30 years have passed, and things have changed.

"The whole health care model has changed so significantly, that some of those tenants were using even outside agencies to come in and help them," Sergesketter said. "That really made the Hope Apartments not really in compliance with our mission. It put us in a landlord-tenant situation. And we don't really want to be landlords. We want to enrich people and help them in society."

Ultimately, Rob said the decision to renovate shows Adeo's board doesn't care about the decades-old commitment his mother made to the community or the 28 tenants who live at the complex.

Peters accused Adeo of leaving behind their community-mindedness, something Hope started Hope Apartments with to fill the need within the community for disabled people. To displace a community living with disabilities to fill another underserved void in the community is not to help, Peters said, rather it's about revenue.

"When an Adeo press release, post board decision, states that they want to set up a brain injury facility to help an underserved part of the population, it cannot be taken at face value," Peters said. "It means displacing a disabled community they are already commissioned to serve for a more profitable portion of the disability community."

Many, including Dorn and other tenants, agree with Peters' accusation.

In 2002, Dorn became a caregiver for the Greeley Center for Independence — when Hope was still working to serve the disabled population. About five or six years ago, Dorn said she quit working for the nonprofit when the focus went from "client-centered to dollar-centered."

"I'm in the business because I care for people and I want to help," Dorn said. "I don't want to have somebody tell me, 'You can't do this for this client because you're not getting paid for it.'

"I don't care if I am getting paid for it or not. I want to help."

Sergesketter answered that the board's decisions are entirely "mission-driven ... to serve the most people who have the greatest need in the way we are best qualified to serve."

"Hope Apartments was not losing money, but without the home health it no longer fits within our mission," she said.

In addition, any profit made by Adeo must go toward supporting the organization or they would lose their nonprofit status.

Whatever the reason, financial or otherwise, residents and Hope's children are concerned Adeo board members have lost touch with the people and the mission of Hope Apartments.

Rob sees Adeo's announcement to displace severely disabled people to make room for brain-injured people as indicating there is no one on the board who understands, has advocated for or has ever had any serious interaction with the population Hope Apartments was created to serve. He said there is no passion or experience for Hope's mission.

Machina said Adeo staff recommended apartments to Deb Walters, a 61-year-old cerebral palsy resident who has been at Hope Apartments for 39 years, without even knowing her needs. Walters is unable to live on the upper levels of apartments because she can't push elevator buttons due to a lack of movement in her hands — something Adeo staff didn't know.

"I think that they don't know the clients here," Machina said. "They don't know who they're representing, who they've been caring for 39 years."

Dorn also accuses staff, particularly Reddy, of being out of touch with the needs of those living in her apartment complex. In Dorn's opinion, the quality of care began decreasing drastically after the rebrand to Adeo. She said tenants lost an activities program, the use of a therapy pool and exercise room and home care due to discontinuations from the board.

The discontinuation of home care forced tenants to find private support from other providers, which is where Front Range Home Care comes into play. Now, the new facility booting people out will result in the loss of Front Range Home Care's easy one-stop-shop for caregivers to provide service to Hope Apartments residents.

Clients have since asked Dorn if they'll still be able to get care at a different apartment. She ensures she will continue caring for her clients — a relief to most who are worried about what the future holds.

"It saddens me so much that there's too much focus on the dollar sign and not enough focus on client care," Dorn said. "All she (Reddy) sees is, 'Oh, we can make more money with brain injuries or there's a need for brain injuries.' Honey, there is a need for what we're doing here too, and it's not fair to move these guys out."

Seeking solutions, scared for the future

Rob wonders why Adeo can't help both current Hope Apartment residents and the brain-injured population.

Grants are one solution to fund both facilities. Dorn added that Hope knew grants were the reason behind the success of the nonprofit.

"The board has done what is easy, not what is right for the community," Rob said. "To do what's right, you need to have people that are very committed to raising the funds and the advocacy required. That's not present."

Machina said she would be happy to help Adeo advocate through grant writers in the community or through fundraising opportunities, so the board could build a new location to meet the high demand for brain injury facilities. Finding people in the community who care and have passion for the cause is how the Greeley Center for Independence came to be, she said.

"We have it here," Machina said about supportive living at Hope Apartments. "Just respect the fact that we promised people that we would take care of them and provide them an independent living space that would be safe and nurturing. If they would just realize the jewel they have."

Sergesketter argued the board shouldn't spend money to build anew if they already have a perfect location — the apartments are next door to staff and the therapy center. She argued tenants would likely be in the same position if Adeo built at a separate location because the nonprofit would presumably have to sell Hope Apartments.

"It really doesn't make sense for the cost of everything today," she added.

The residents and Hope's children aren't exactly hopeful about Adeo changing their minds about the decision to renovate. The loss of Hope Apartments is not only a devastating step backward for clients, but it's also devastating to the future of anyone that needs housing with severe disabilities in northern Colorado, Rob said.

It's another monumental resource the city is losing, in an area already lacking independent living options for people with disabilities, according to Machina.

"If anyone ends up in a wheelchair, where do they go now?" Machina asked. "We're losing a huge asset to our community. I don't think we're moving forward. I think we're moving backward."

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