seniors residence

By Joel Goldenberg

Côte St. Luc council regular Norman Sabin called on the city to speak out regarding the recently announced Sept. 30 closure of the Le King David seniors residence. “You have to feel sorry for these residents,” Sabin said. “They’re going to have to go somewhere else, maybe pay more for their lodging. It’s always a hardship for them and their families.”

He also pointed out that the Quebec government has a five-year program to help such residences remain open, and that perhaps this could help the King David remain operational.”I think, at a minimum, council should make a statement on the King David. These are 77 residents of CSL. We have a certain degree of responsibility towards them.”

Mayor Mitchell Brownstein replied that the city has been in close contact with the King David. Councillor Steven Erdelyi, whose district includes the King David, said he has been speaking to the King David, the Waldorf and B’nai Brith House. He also said he has heard the amount of residents at King David is in the low 60s. “Really, since the pandemic, things have not been going well financially for the King David, they’ve been honest with me, I spoke to them a few times over the past few years. I tried to promote them, they were our Merchant of the Month in the fall of 2022. I tried to help them as much as I could. They haven’t been full for a long time. It was in December 2023 when they told me financially, it wasn’t sustainable.”

Erdelyi said his goal was to help residents find a new home at a comparable cost, and that the Waldorf agreed to have them live at that residence at the same rent they were paying at the King David, “with just an increase based on inflation.

”Many of the residents have gone to the Waldorf, and others have gone to the [west-central] CIUSSS. B’nai Brith House took a few, but they are more independent living. I’m not happy about this but, on the financial side, the city doesn’t have the means to support a private residence, or a public residence.”

Regarding the provincial government program to help residences, “I think, at that point for them, it was too late.”

Erdelyi also said he spoke to the owners of the King David about keeping it open longer.

“They said, it’s a dilemma because the staff are aware the King David is closing, and their first instinct would be to look for alternative jobs, so it’s tough for them to maintain services for the existing residents. For me, the goal is to have the residents placed and their moving costs are being covered.”

On Feb. 22, King David employee Leonora Longdon told The Suburban that, to her knowledge, not one King David employee has found a new job yet.

“Plus, they’re not giving us severance pay and they still owe us $4 an hour bonus that the government said they have to give us. They haven’t paid us that for months.”

The latter point was recently brought up by Daniel Lévesque of the Syndicat québécois des employées et employés de service.

Longdon added that the employees do not know exactly when or why the King David is closing, although the official announcement says the end of September.

“They have brought in two organizations to help us look for jobs. These are unilingual [English] employees who have worked for them for 30 years, and the way we are being treated is not very nice.”