Historic Vassar Warner Home in Poughkeepsie fighting to stay open
Vassar Warner Home staff plan on speaking at a Dutchess County legislative meeting Tuesday night in hopes their last-minute calls for help won’t fall on deaf ears.
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A Dutchess County adult home and assisted living facility that once housed Civil War widows is now fighting to stay open - with just days to spare.
Vassar Warner Home’s executive director Ericka Van Salews says tough financial times forced the nonprofit adult home and assisted living facility to submit closure plans to the state Department of Health over the summer. Salews says two boards that oversee the facility have unsuccessfully tried to find public and federal funding to reverse their fate.
“This is an awful, horrible thing that’s happening,” says Salews. “This has been the worst time in my professional career.”
As of Tuesday, three of the facility’s 58 residents remain. The rest have been relocated and the remaining seniors, including 97-year-old Ruth Boraoski, from Hyde Park, are waiting to be transferred to other facilities.
“It’s like home here,” says Boraoski. “I want to stay here.”
The facility is on the National Register of Historic places and is located on South Hamilton Street. It opened to seniors in 1871, and some of the original occupants' belongings, like wood furniture and plateware, remain.
Staff say their final resident is expected to be relocated on Thursday, at which time they’ll be required to permanently relinquish their state license.
Residents’ family members are trying to fundraise and have put together $12,000 in the last few weeks, but it falls short of the roughly half million dollars that staff say is needed to stay afloat until the end of the year, when other agencies might be expected to offset funding in their budgets.
“This is a really devasting surprise to us all,” says Rich Schuster, whose mother has lived there for 19 years. “We’re running out of time.”
Schuster and Salews say at this point, a miracle is needed.
“If we can get to January or February and get the place filled up again, then we are home free,” Schuster says.
Vassar Warner Home staff plan on speaking at a Dutchess County legislative meeting Tuesday night in hopes their last-minute calls for help won’t fall on deaf ears.
“I’m packed if I have to go,” says Boraoski, “but I’ll be the last one.”
For more information on the efforts to help the Vassar Warner Home visit their website.
