A 96-year-old Los Angeles resident could face eviction on Christmas Eve after she allegedly asked the nursing facility where she lives to credit her for services she wasn’t receiving, her daughter says.
Sally Kelly requires help for almost all of her daily tasks after she suffered two strokes and two broken hips—showering, using the bathroom, and moving around her apartment.
Her daughter, Audrey Kelly, set up cameras in her room at City View Villa for her own safety, which captured just how long it took the senior living facility to respond to her calls.
In one instance, the video shows her waiting 58 minutes to respond to a request for assistance using the bathroom, CBS LA reports, but the video stopped recording after about an hour. Her daughter alleges that it took them about two hours to respond to her call.
In another recording, she waited 38 minutes before the recording stops, CBS LA reports.
And her daughter says that’s not the only problem they’re having with the facility.
“They don’t show up for showers 95 percent of the time so I have to do it, they don’t show up to dress her in the morning, provide her grooming in the morning,” she said, adding that the service doesn’t change even after she calls to remind them.
Instead, the facility’s executive director responded by telling Sally she needs to take her cameras down, claiming that her filming in her own residence is criminal.
Audrey contacted the LAPD to ask about that statement, and they assured her that installing cameras in her own home was not against the law.
Even after Sally presented them with their response, a GoFundMe page set up by Audrey says they continued to accuse Sally of criminal misconduct.
The nursing facility also refused to credit her for the services she claims they failed to provide, so Sally gave them notice that she would be deducting $7,500 from her monthly rent for the lack of services, the GoFundMe page states. After that, they threatened her with eviction, it says.
“She’s scared she’s upset rightfully so, she doesn’t understand why they won’t credit her account when they know she has these cameras that have caught them red-handed and she doesn’t understand why on the eve of the holidays would they be so cruel,” Audrey told CBS LA.
A GoFundMe page set up to raise money for Sally’s legal expenses says the facility plans to serve her another eviction notice for “inappropriate behavior” if she wins the first court case.
Despite the threat of eviction, Audrey told CBS LA that they aren’t going to remove the video cameras.
According to the California Department of Social Services (DSS) website, CityView has, since 2013, had three citations for violations that pose an immediate risk and six citations for violations that, if not corrected, could lead to a serious risk to patients. The DSS has conducted 17 visits to the facility, 14 of which were for complaints.
One DSS report over a complaint of an unlawful eviction concluded that, after interviewing random residents, “residents’ needs are being met and that staff provide sufficient care to residents.”
