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Magistrate: House of Hope stays open
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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The House of Hope, 115 Illinois Ave., Youngstown.
YOUNGSTOWN
A magistrate has issued a preliminary injunction allowing a North Side home for mentally ill adults to stay open, but he imposed strict conditions on the facility’s operation.
On Monday, Magistrate Daniel P. Dascenzo ordered that the House of Hope, 115 Illinois Ave., must immediately contact the state fire marshal to schedule an inspection to identify any fire- safety violations and correct any violations the fire marshal finds.
The facility is the former Bryson Manor Adult Care facility.
The home also must continue to cooperate with the Ohio Department of Health to correct any violations found by its inspectors, the magistrate from Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled.
The facility’s “fledgling attempts at remedial action are insufficient to alleviate the existence of conditions which put the residents and the surrounding community at some risk of harm,” Dascenzo wrote.
Dascenzo also continued the bans on admissions of new residents and on staff reductions at the home, which he had imposed in a Feb. 23 temporary restraining order, until further order of the court.
Citing “the continued real and present danger,” Lisa M. Eschbacher, an assistant Ohio attorney general representing the state heath department, asked the magistrate to close the facility during a hearing last week.
ODH representatives found serious threats to residents’ safety and security in several inspections after an HOH resident was found unresponsive in a bathtub there and pronounced dead at a local hospital Nov. 11, she said.
The state’s request to close the facility and relocate its 43 residents was based on alleged safety violations, including improper fire-safety measures concerning cigarette-smoking by residents.
“If a fire did break out at the residential facility due to failure to enforce the smoking policy or as a result of some other unforeseen or accidental cause, the harm to residents and staff could, indeed, be irreparable,” the magistrate wrote.
James J. Leo of Galena, HOH’s lawyer, said the state’s request to close the facility didn’t specify any imminent danger and didn’t specifically attribute fault to HOH in the resident’s death.
Many of the facility’s residents likely are to become homeless if facilities such as HOH are not available, he added.