Water shutoff notice issued for Forest Glen residents in Canyonville

Published 1:45 pm Thursday, March 21, 2024

Nearly two months since management of the Forest Glen Senior Residence announced that the building would close “effective immediately,” a water shutoff notice from the city of Canyonville could force more than four dozen remaining residents to begin moving out.

Canyonville Mayor Christine Morgan said a termination of service notice, reflecting a balance of more than $32,000, was hand-delivered by city officials on Wednesday afternoon after utilities had gone unpaid for nearly six months.

A six-story structure along Interstate 5, the building opened as a retirement home in the early 1960s but has served as low-income and elderly housing in more recent years.

Property owner Terry Emmert purchased the building for about $700,000 in 2022 and partnered with structural engineer Jerry Reeves, who founded Harmony Active Living LLC and said he acted on Emmert’s behalf in hiring, and later firing, employees.

Reeves issued a closure notice Feb. 9, he said at the time, on behalf of Emmert. Before that, he had urged Emmert, who Reeves said is having financial struggles, to close the building “the right way” and give tenants 30 to 90 days’ notice to vacate, he said.

In a community meeting Feb. 22, Reeves told residents and more than 100 community members and regional government agencies that Emmert had refused to discuss the future of the building or tenants. At the same meeting, former manager Rain Clark and former assistant manager Star Netherton announced plans to form a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and said community members had donated food and helped with cleaning the building.

The building is in a dilapidated state. A number of residents have unmet medical or mental health needs.

Morgan said Wednesday’s shutoff notice, scheduled to go into effect May 1, had less to do with the cost of water and the unpaid balance than with trying to help “move the situation along” to ensure residents’ safety and well-being. The resident tally includes 40 former tenants and a dozen former employees who also lived in the building.

In an interview with the Rogue Valley Times on Wednesday, Morgan said city officials learned of the situation Feb. 12 and met with Clark and Netherton the following day, agreeing to leave water service connected while the situation was assessed. Morgan said she had been communicating with regional and state service providers, who have voiced concerns about the situation, while investigating the events that led to the closure notice, which she said created a situation where former tenants are essentially squatting in the building.

Morgan said the community’s response and donations were the “right thing to do,” but that the situation had evolved, and further donations of money and supplies would only enable and exacerbate a bad situation. Prior to the closure notice, a small number of residents, fewer than half a dozen, paid for a meal plan as part of their monthly rent. Since donations began pouring in, Morgan said, nearly all remaining residents had been eating in the dining hall.

Morgan, who said City Council members voted March 18 to discontinue water service, said it had become apparent that the situation could now be viewed as an emergency, allowing significant levels of assistance to be provided to residents, until the situation escalated.

A lack of water, she noted, should prompt a response from other agencies, including the Housing Authority of Douglas County and state Department of Human Services. Morgan said a lien was being placed on the property for the outstanding utility balance.

“If you looked at how it all was coming down, the owners weren’t doing anything, they closed the facility, yet no one left … It’s just been a very bizarre situation. When you look at the care that needs to be done with those elderly people, the city felt like this step would perhaps … move things along,” Morgan said Wednesday, noting that Netherton, the former assistant manager, was not surprised by the shutoff notice.

Contacted on Thursday, Reeves maintained his position that Emmert, who has not returned calls from the Times, was in charge of matters involving the building. Reeves said residents already lived in the building prior to his signing on, last fall, through a verbal agreement to help provide management.

“When I started, (Emmert) had just shut the second floor down, and then they had a (workers’ compensation) claim they wanted my help with. The whole way they got me into this was the fact that they asked me to put (workers’ compensation) on the employees because they were in trouble with it and already had a fine of $65,000,” Reeves said.

“I told him, ‘I’ll run it if you fund it until we get it sold, or I buy you out with a new remodel.’”

Reeves said Emmert never paid him to manage the building and that, due to a lack of communication from Emmert, he had largely stepped away. Reeves said Thursday he was still collecting rent from a small number of residents and depositing the funds into an account designated for facility costs. He said Emmert contacted him recently for help evicting a dangerous resident but declined to discuss the building.

“Terry and I need to sit down and work this out, but Terry won’t do it,” Reeves added.

“Terry’s just got his head in the sand for whatever reason. He’s forcing me to sue him for breach of the (verbal) deal. Right now, you’ve got tenants running the building. I’m here to help, but I’m not here to say I’m the one solving all the problems.”

Netherton said in a text message to the Times that residents were gathering money to attempt to pay the water bill and other expenses. Mayor Morgan, however, said the city would not accept payment from residents and would need to hear from Emmert regarding the status of the property before continuation of service could be considered.

Morgan said DHS officials had been on site almost daily since the closure announcement, offering housing alternatives and other services. Additional agencies, including officials with Embrace Senior Advisors and the county housing authority had stepped in to offer placement, but calls largely have gone unanswered.

Since Feb. 13, Morgan said four residents have been rehoused, one died and one was evicted for dangerous behavior. Morgan said community members who had helped with food, cleaning supplies, labor and garbage service had “have become skeptical as no feasible plan to keep Forest Glen open as an apartment complex has come to fruition.”

The Wednesday shutoff notice read, “These volunteers were happy to step up and help but are seeing themselves as being taken advantage of as no workable plan of action has happened.”

Morgan said City Council members agreed that “the best way to secure care and help for these elderly residents is for agencies and/or family to rehouse them.”

“I considered asking for assistance from the Douglas County Building Official, the State Fire Marshal’s office and Douglas County Health Department,” the notice read.

“If these agencies found any fire/life safety issues, the residents would be required to move immediately. We did not want this to happen, preferring to give an additional six weeks for places to be found for the residents.”