Give The Harborside's waiting seniors what they're owed

The residents of The Harborside in Port Washington have been through enough.

For more than a year, the seniors who called the continuing care retirement facility their home, who depended upon it for services they needed, and who initially paid up to almost $2 million each in entrance fees, have dealt with challenge after challenge, as uncertainty and turmoil hovered over The Harborside. The facility, which has been through three bankruptcies in 10 years, faced a particularly intense series of problems over the last year and a half, with worrisome shortcomings in ownership, management, staffing, infrastructure and care. 

Earlier this year, The Harborside was sold to Focus Healthcare Partners LLC, an investment group. Some residents had to move after the nursing home, dementia and assisted-living units were shuttered. Others still reside in independent-living apartments. Focus officials have said they'll reopen some units when they get the licensing.

As part of the bankruptcy settlement with the previous owners, residents and their families were promised refunds of more than $41 million total in entrance fees. That's a relatively paltry sum, only about 30% of the $121.4 million in total entrance fees the residents were originally charged.

Yet, current and former residents  — many in their 90s — haven't been given even what was pledged. While about $5 million total in initial refund checks was disbursed, the rest is in limbo. Residents have received between $17,000 and $25,000 each so far.

The problem: The additional refunds apparently depend on the sale of a different nursing home, The Amsterdam, in Manhattan, whose owners opened The Harborside in 2010. That sale was first agreed to in 2020. But it's somehow still awaiting state Health Department and attorney general approvals. A revised application was submitted to the Health Department in March. A department spokeswoman told the Newsday editorial board this month that officials have "clearly communicated challenges that remain unresolved" to the parties involved, but she did not specify what those remaining challenges were. The state attorney general's office said it has no timetable for its review or decision.

That's not good enough for The Harborside's seniors.

Time is of the essence. These residents and their families shouldn't be spending weeks and months worrying about money they're owed, or how they're going to make ends meet. And they certainly shouldn't be the collateral damage of battles involving investment firms, nursing home owners and state regulatory officials.

It's up to the Health Department and the attorney general to put The Harborside's seniors first and to recognize the urgency of the situation. State officials must act quickly to work with The Amsterdam to move past remaining roadblocks and finalize that sale. Then, they must make sure Long Island's waiting seniors get the rest of the money they're owed. It's long past time for The Harborside's residents to finally stop having to fight battle after battle over the place they've called home.