PHOENIX — A day after announcing it would close its south Phoenix facility, family members of patients at Hacienda Healthcare are struggling to find new housing for their loved ones.
Hacienda Healthcare has been under fire since December, when a disabled woman gave birth unexpectedly. Staff claimed they didn't know she was pregnant. A nurse was later arrested for rape.
A Hacienda Healthcare statement said the facility was no longer economical to run and would close.
However, a day later, Hacienda Healthcare announced that it agreed to be overseen by the Arizona Department of Health Services in order to avert the closure.
"At this point, there actually is not a transition," Heidi Reid-Champigny said. "Everything is on hold."
Reid-Champginy's brother is a patient at Hacienda, and she's also a volunteer at the facility. She said she's not worried about where he may go, but also doesn't have a plan.
"You can't latch on to anything," she said.
Finding new housing may be extremely difficult for patients. Hacienda was one of the few facilities in Arizona that could provide long-term care to intellectually disabled patients.
Karina Cesena's 22-year-old daughter was at Hacienda for more than a year. It took six months of looking before Cesena could find a new facility.
"Most of it is senior living," Cesena said. "I'm not going to put her in with a bunch of seniors."
A spokesman for Hacienda Healthcare said the facility was working to find alternative facilities for the 37 patients living there.
