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Seniors Fighting Eviction Get $3.35M Settlement and Agree to Move Out

By Leslie Albrecht | June 1, 2016 3:06pm | Updated on June 2, 2016 11:06am
 A 102-year-old resident of Prospect Park Residence at a 2014 rally protesting the abrupt closure of the assisted living facility.
A 102-year-old resident of Prospect Park Residence at a 2014 rally protesting the abrupt closure of the assisted living facility.
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Facebook/Prospect Park Residence Stop the Evictions

PARK SLOPE — Five elderly women who've been fighting attempts to force them out of an assisted living facility have reached a financial settlement with its owner and will move out before September, lawyers announced Tuesday.

The owners of Prospect Park Residence will pay $533,333 each to four women in their 90s and one 101-year-old as part of a settlement finalized Tuesday, which will let the women stay at the facility until Aug. 31, attorney Kevin Cremin of MFY Legal Services said.

"Our clients steadfastly refused to be rushed out of their home and into nursing homes," Cremin said.

"This settlement should make it clear to assisted living operators and to the Department of Health that the days of throwing residents out with impunity are coming to an end."

The elderly tenants aren't done fighting — they'll continue their legal action against the state Department of Health, which oversees Prospect Park Residence.

They contend the DOH should never have approved a plan to close the facility and that the agency did little to help residents as conditions there deteriorated.

Joyce Singer, whose mother lives at Prospect Park Residence, said she had mixed feelings about the settlement. Singer said attorneys with MFY Legal Services, Legal Aid Society and Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto "did their absolute best" to fight for the frail tenants.

The money and time will help ease her mother's transition to a new home, but Singer still worries that the move could be a "potential disaster" for her mom, who turns 92 on June 15.

"We'll try to make it as painless as possible," Singer said.

"There isn’t a day that goes by that my mother doesn’t tell me how much she loves her home."

Singer is hopeful her mom can continue to live very close to a fellow tenant at Prospect Park Residence who she said has become as close as family.

Singer said she's glad the legal battle against the state Department of Health will continue.

"I don’t want this to happen to someone else," Singer said.

"It's just amazing how [the Department of Health doesn't] protect anybody. They seem to be more concerned about the well-being of this wealthy landowner than these poor old people."

Tuesday's agreement settles part of the court battle seniors launched in May 2014, shortly after Prospect Park Residence abruptly informed the facility's 130 tenants they had 90 days to get out because owner Haysha Deitsch planned to sell the building to a residential developer.

The defendants in that case, which include Deitsch and two LLCs, must pay the plaintiffs a total of $3.35 million. The money will be split between the five remaining residents and about 10 other former PPR tenants who were plaintiffs in the original lawsuit but have since moved out.

The operators of PPR must maintain services at the facility, including making sure air conditioning and elevators are functioning properly, until the last tenant leaves, according to the agreement.

As part of the settlement, Deitsch agreed to drop a $50 million lawsuit filed against the families of PPR's tenants.

"We're happy that we settled this portion of the litigation so we can focus on addressing the remaining portions," said Deitsch’s attorney, Frank Carone.

Deitsch is still fighting court battles over his attempts to sell the Prospect Park Residence building to developer Sugar Hill Capital Partners, as well as wrongful death lawsuits involving the facility.

The building, which overlooks Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza, is now in foreclosure, Cremin said.

After this story was originally published, a spokeswoman for Prospect Park Residence's "ownership group" said in an emailed statement that the settlement brings "certainty to a circumstance that all parties would have preferred to see resolved long ago."

The group's email reiterates previous statements that Prospect Park Residence was shuttered because running it was too expensive. "For many years, PPR struggled to serve our residential community, with the goal of maintaining a long-term viable business. However operational losses mounted and the tax burdens grew.  Simply put, the ongoing operation of an assisted living residence was unsustainable.