As money drains, new Portage Manor board leader urges haste in plans for new facility

SOUTH BEND ― A year after St. Joseph County officials were assuaging concerns about whether Portage Manor would stay open, the new leader of the residential health care facility's oversight board says he wants county councilors to decide within six months whether to start construction on a new building.

But councilors' decision-making process won't move forward until two Fort Wayne consultants being paid more than $100,000 by the county finish financial projections for a new building. The numbers won't be ready until at least December, one consultant said at a Thursday meeting of the Portage Manor Board of Managers.

The forecast aims to determine which government funding stream will pay the most per resident and eventually make the facility in northwest South Bend self-sustaining, said Frank Fotia, the new board president as of Thursday. The target range for the cost of building a new facility is $25-32 million.

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Fotia gave the six-month timeline because the facility now has less than $1 million in cash and expects to continue losing at least $500,000 annually, though most of that loss is being temporarily offset by county reimbursements. The facility is losing money because its revenue comes mainly from the state-run Residential Care Assistance Program, which leaders say fails to pay enough to care for residents.

Since 2012, Portage Manor's cash reserves have consistently fallen. Without a change, Fotia said, "The council will always be giving money" for reimbursement.

With a sound funding model and a new building, Fotia added, "by 2025 or by 2026, we should be in a position where it's self-sustaining."

Fotia replaced former board president Patti Godsey, who had served on the mostly volunteer-led Board of Managers since 2010. "It broke her heart to have to resign," Fotia said, but Godsey had family issues that demanded she step down.

Debra Lambert, the CEO of Byron Wellness Systems of Fort Wayne, is leading the effort to find a viable revenue stream. Lambert's firm has become increasingly involved in the effort to move residents out of the aging facility without displacing its more than 110 residents, who are either adults under 65 with mental or physical disabilities or older than 65.

"We can't make the revenue by small margins," Lambert said Thursday. "We have to make the revenue by enough of a margin so that if something unforeseen happens ... it's not going to shut the place down."

Lambert was paid at least $60,000 and as much as $80,500 for less than two months of work from May to July 1. In that time, she found a new licensed administrator to run Portage Manor, and Christine Hinz, the director hired by the oversight board this January, resigned.

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Fotia said the county is now paying Byron $7,000 a month, or $84,000 a year, indefinitely for Lambert's consulting work regarding plans for a new facility and for guidance she gives to Portage Manor's new leader, Kortney Mullins.

"This is almost like adding another employee," board member Mike Kruk said of the Byron Wellness contract.

Byron is an "invaluable resource," Mullins said in response, noting that she asks Lambert management-related questions several times a day. Byron runs a similar but modern residential health care facility in Fort Wayne.

St. Joseph County "does not have a resource that specializes in health care the way that Byron does," Mullins said.

MKM Architecture is on a renewed contract of $25,000 for the work of Dodd Kattman, who's leading design of a new facility. MKM also designed the Byron Wellness Systems site.

Once residents move out, plans are unclear for the stately 1907 Portage Manor building, which sits on 114 acres of county-owned land just south of the Indiana Toll Road. Fotia said county leaders are considering multiple sites at which to build a new facility.

Lambert's focus until December is finding out whether an unconventional funding model, which would involve money from low-income housing programs, could work. Whatever method is chosen will make room for all of the facility's current residents, she said.

"We need something sustainable long-term, because the folks that we serve aren't going anywhere," Lambert said. "They'll be with us always."

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend group home losing money while planning for new facility