With only a little more than one week before The Landing in Silver Spring, an assisted living and memory care facility, closes its doors, only five of the 53 residents remain.
According to an Oct. 2 letter “to our residents and their families,” the facility on New Hampshire Avenue was sold to Omega Healthcare Investors and Communicare and will undergo a year-long renovation. The renovated facility will be a skilled nursing facility.
As written in the letter, “All residents will need to secure new living residences and complete relocation by November 15th.”
According to Patrice McGhee, chief of aging and disability services for Montgomery County Health and Human Services, 22 residents were still living at the facility as of Oct. 27. By Nov. 3, only five residents didn’t know when they were moving, according to the latest report.
The Landing staff is assisting residents who have physical limitations or without family to help them pack and move, McGhee said in an email to MCM.
Some senior living communities have allowed residents to move as a group so that they don’t feel alone, she noted in the email.
Maryland Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program is required to follow up with every resident that had to be transferred and must conduct at least two in-person visits for each person in a new nursing home or assisted living facility in Maryland.
Montgomery County officials are expected to contact ombudsman offices out of county or stats to ensure that follow up visits are made to those residents who moved away from the area.
Although criticized by County Executive Marc Elrich and other officials, the Nov. 15 closing date was moved back.
When he first learned about the six-week notice, Elrich questioned why the facility would give such little notice when it was not condemned and there were no dangerous issues. “They certainly could have run this out another month if they needed to make sure everyone gets taken care of,” he said.
“They are putting people at risk,” Elrich said in October, adding, “It’s just stunning that they can do this to people.”
