Two years after it closed down and two months after officials gave up on reopening it as a residential care facility, the operators of Island Nursing Home in Deer Isle say they hope to reopen as affordable housing for seniors.
Island Nursing Home shut down in the fall of 2021 after it was unable to meet skilled staffing levels needed to take care of its residents. The high cost of housing in coastal Hancock County was cited as a significant reason why it could not fill vacancies on its nursing staff.
A year later, after concluding that Maine lacked enough nurses for it to open again as a skilled nursing home, officials said they hoped to re-open as a residential care facility. If it could not offer licensed nursing services, the home still could offer meals, medication, lodging and supervision, they said.
But then they scrapped that plan in October. The home’s directors concluded that, even without offering skilled nursing services, they would be unable to raise enough funds or hire enough people to make a residential care facility work.
The new plan, to convert Island Nursing Home into affordable housing for seniors, will require the building to be renovated into apartments for residents. The concept, called “supportive housing,” would include some coordinated services for residents such as cleaning, cooking and transportation, but will emphasize independent living.
“This concept does two things,” Leon Weed, president of the board of directors, said Monday. “It doesn’t require staffing levels for care, which has been an issue. And it doesn’t leave us with a funding gap. That solves our two biggest challenges, and we think it will still provide a service for our senior citizens.”
Officials said they have not determined how many residents could live at the facility if it is converted into residential apartments, or how long that conversion might take before it could reopen.
The home’s board has worked with civil engineering firm Acorn Engineering of Portland to review the home’s land-use zoning, septic system and water supply, it said. The firm determined that the facility can be well equipped to handle supportive housing.
The board said it plans to hire an architecture firm to determine what needs to be done to renovate the facility for the apartments, and that it likely would apply for grants from the Maine State Housing Authority to do the necessary work.
Skip Greenlaw, treasurer of the board, said that as much as the board wanted to reopen as a skilled nursing home, it’s just not possible.
“Of all of the nursing homes that have closed in our state over the past several years, Island Nursing Home is the only one actively trying to reopen,” Greenlaw said. “The environment in our state isn’t supportive of that, unfortunately. But I think we have found a use that will be beneficial for our senior citizens, and sustainable for our organization.”
