Abandoning Vulnerable Adults

According to a recent report, the Hughey Law Firm intervened after The Oaks at Charleston, an assisted living facility, allegedly attempted to move forward with a closure that would have displaced nearly 100 elderly residents. Many of these residents were in their 80s and 90s and had complex medical needs. Families were reportedly told there would be no exceptions to the facility’s closure timeline, leaving them scrambling to find safe alternative placements.

That is not how long-term care is supposed to work. Assisted living residents are not ordinary tenants, and facilities are not ordinary landlords. These residents often depend on the facility for medication assistance, meals, supervision, mobility support, dementia care, transportation, and daily structure. A rushed move is not just inconvenient. For a vulnerable adult, it can be dangerous.

South Carolina’s residential care facility regulations recognize that danger. When a facility closes, it must ensure continuity of care, including notice to the resident’s physician or healthcare provider and responsible party, and arrangements for referral to another facility. Those requirements exist because displacement can interrupt care, destabilize residents, and expose them to preventable harm.

Reports indicate that the South Carolina Department of Public Health ultimately prohibited The Oaks at Charleston from closing until every resident was safely placed in a new home. That kind of oversight is critical. A facility’s corporate or financial decision does not erase its duty to protect the residents it agreed to care for.

This situation highlights a broader problem in the assisted living industry. When ownership groups make business decisions, vulnerable residents are often the ones forced to absorb the risk. Whether the issue is closure, understaffing, poor supervision, or inadequate discharge planning, the same principle applies: facilities cannot place corporate convenience ahead of resident safety.

Families should not have to fight alone to prevent their loved ones from being displaced without a safe plan. Assisted living facilities accept responsibility for vulnerable adults, and that responsibility continues through any closure, transfer, or discharge. A facility may close its doors, but it cannot simply walk away from the people it promised to protect.