Officials with the former Island Nursing Home in Deer Isle are using $184,000 in donated funds to help develop a plan for converting the facility into housing for older Mainers.
The money was initially raised when officials were trying to reopen the Deer Isle nursing home as a residential care facility, after its closure in the fall of 2021. Overall, the nursing home board was able to raise $231,000 from approximately 350 donors for that plan.
But the board scrapped the assisted living concept last October, after deciding that fundraising and finding enough staff — which was a primary factor in the 2021 shutdown — would continue to be challenging. Then in December, the board instead decided to pursue plans to convert the shuttered building into affordable senior housing, which offers fewer services but is less expensive.
The board decided to offer to return donations that had been raised to support the residential care proposal.
“To date, contributors have told us we could keep $183,951,” said Leon Wedd, the board president. “Contributors have requested that we return $12,325, which we have done already.”
Residential care facilities offer fewer medical services than licensed nursing homes, while senior housing facilities can only offer coordinated everyday living services such as cleaning, cooking and transportation.
In trying to preserve the Deer Isle facility as any kind of housing for older residents, the board and its supporters are fighting against a statewide and national trend that has seen nearly two dozen nursing homes in Maine close in the past decade. Increasing costs, declining residency rates and staffing difficulties have been among the top reasons cited for the closures.
Of the $231,000 raised in Deer Isle, there remains about $35,000 from donors who have not expressed a preference on whether to be reimbursed. Weed said those remaining funds also will be returned to the donors, but that donations will still be accepted.
“Of course if they wish to send the money back to us for the purpose of senior apartment renovations, we will gladly put it toward that purpose,” he said.
Last month, the board hired Portland consulting firm L&B Developers to conduct a feasibility study of the housing concept and devise cost estimates for renovation and operation, as well as to identify possible revenue streams, Weed said.
The board also has hired Portland architecture firm Whipple Callender to make a plan for renovating the nursing home into more than 20 apartments.
“We have to ensure there is enough demand to fill the proposed apartments, and we will determine that with a market study,” Weed said. “We have to ensure that the cost of the project is affordable with the bulk of the cost of renovations coming from Maine Housing and other grants.”
