The recent Inquirer investigative reports regarding unlicensed and substandard Personal Care Homes in Pennsylvania may have been eye-opening for many residents of this state, but certainly not those who live in Germantown and Mt. Airy .  Estelle Richman, Secretary of the DPW since 2003 is called to answer for the tragedies that go way beyond the alarming statistics, but she was warned years ago from evidence that was the outgrowth of the closing of two area personal care homes on Johnson Street, one of which was the largest privately run home in the state with 215 residents.  Residents that were kept in squalor and exposed to violence on a regular basis, while the regulators and overseers looked on.

 

The Germantown Courier and Mt. Airy Times exposed the conditions in Mt. Airy Commons, and the adjacent home Edgewood , in a multi-part series that included statistical details of the frequency of police and rescue squad dispatched there over specific periods and the licensing history over nearly 20 years.  Alarming and frightening would be the only words to describe what was learned, and alarmed was what the Mental Health Association and other outside agencies were as they learned what was described in the local stores was true. But no alarm bells were ever rung in the DPW licensing office in Philadelphia or even with the paid Ombudsman, The Northwest Interfaith Movement’s office, a short distance away.

 

These homes were finally closed in mid-2002, but make no mistake; they were not closed as a result of diligent oversight by the DPW inspector, the Ombudsman, or even the local politicians responding to complaints from the citizens or residents.  In fact the exact opposite had been happening for years despite those complaints having been filed since soon after the homes opened in 1981, and continuing thereafter. News stories from the period verify complaints by local residents.  Multiple deaths from non-natural causes, fatal fires, and regular cases of missing residents and violence within the homes did nothing to stop the process where the same operators ran the homes with the help of the regulators in obtaining an under-the-radar replacement license when the DPW from Harrisburg revoked one of them in 1996.

 

No, these homes were closed thought the grass roots effort of a local community group, the Pomona-Cherokee Civic Council, which gathered information and data from local residents who had lived closest to the ongoing negative impact of these recklessly managed facilities on their neighborhood. For many months at  the regular community meetings they reactivated past history, met with others, and merged it with statistical data gleaned form the City and State records; but not without serious resistance to their disclosure.

 
Before this carefully assembled information was vetted and printed by the Courier and Times it was first offered to our State Senator Allyson Schwartz, requesting an investigation and at the same time requests for inspection and remedial action were forwarded to State Representative John Myers and Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller.  Despite repeated requests for inspection by those offices, none were forthcoming.  That is, none were forthcoming until a TV News Channel did a live broadcast from the Johnson Street site.

 

It should be remembered that months intervened between the gathering of the data and printing of the story that brought the publicity. Representative John Myers office promised an inspection, but twice changed his mind claiming no authority over DPW.  Councilwoman Miller’s office simply ignored the requests, a standard practice there.  State Senator Schwartz even denied receiving the assembled material after she was forced by outraged neighbors to meet with them when the TV story broke; backed up by inside investigations by the mental health advocates. It should be noted that formal written requests to investigative state authorities were also rebuked, both verbally and in writing.

 

Yes, the homes were finally closed and the residents individually and carefully evaluated before transfer, something the State DPW did not want to do.  Incredible, these homes that the State would not close after multiple requests over 20 years were to be done in 30 days once the negative publicity started to mushroom.  After reading the above, all of which is documented, ask yourself where the negative impact should ultimately lead.  As Harry Truman so wisely said “The Buck Stops Here”, meaning the top of the political food chain. But it seems some folks easily dodged the bullet.

 

The reason?  Nothing was learned from the Mt. Airy Germantown experience; at least nothing was done with what was learned, despite efforts to use this example as the foundation for public hearings to rewrite the incredibly loose regulations that allow shallow oversight and probationary licenses for years on end, regardless of how many violations accrue.  I personally sent a certified letter to newly appointed Secretary Estelle Richman (A letter I confirmed she received) virtually begging this information be used to initiate reform.  No reply was ever received, and worse the Inquirer now reports on Thursday, March 22, 2007 in headline form that 3 out of 4 homes are operating with expired licenses and 55 residents state wide have died under questionable circumstances in recent years.

 

But there is yet another shoe to drop that should raise the ire of any responsible local citizen.  All of the data regarding the outrageous conditions in Mt. Airy and Germantown (neighborhoods that have the highest impact and concentration of care homes in the city) were given to the Inquirer reporter who wrote the very recently published four part series that purported to be an expose on Personal Care Home failures statewide.  Not one mention of the huge facilities (remember 215 in one building, and another 150 next door in another) that had to be closed after one of the worst track records one could imagine.  These homes were the poster children of abuse and system failure, and the multi-part story did reflect back on examples from the recent past, and 2002 was not that long ago.

 

These homes and their history were manicured from the record for political reasons, the same way the story of their closing was watered-down to read that they were being closed as a “routine business decision” by the management. This would be the same management who reportedly owns more income-producing real estate than any other in the Mt. Airy area.  When contacted for a response from the Inquirer to this “oversight” the answer was that the DPW did close them and that was in the past.  Fact:  If the DPW and the Ombudsman had their way they would still be open, and a 20 years of operation, mostly on probational licenses, is no minor infraction.  These stories were left out as a favor to the politicians who looked the other way, and most local residents clearly understand that.

 

The editor of the Germantown Courier and Mt Airy Times should be commended for his true journalistic approach to these stories when they surfaced.  In view of the high impact and controversial nature, he had every statistic and the supporting information vetted by another journalist from outside the Philadelphia area before it went to print.  Every bit checked out.  Shamefully, we do not have that same perspective at the Philadelphia Inquirer where political correctness and favoritism trumps the kind of effective investigative journalism it would take to get real reform.

 

Jim Foster

Vice President

Pomona-Cherokee Civic Council

Germantown