Resident, families and petition seek to keep Portage Manor as home

SOUTH BEND — On March 15, Mark Huffman will have lived at Portage Manor for 33 years. His girlfriend has also lived there for decades. So his eyes moistened as he stood and spoke at a “Save Portage Manor” town hall meeting Monday.

“The staff are good, they always listen to us, they love us,” he said. “All of a sudden, these (county) commissioners come and tell us we going to lose our home.”

“When you’ve been there as long as I have, it’s like family to you,” Huffman said, noting that he also serves as a pastor for the chapel in the county-owned home for people with disabilities and mental illness. “You see people move in and out. Now it’s going to seem like a rebuild of a sports team.”

Advocates are pushing back on some county commissioners’ and council members’ efforts to close Portage Manor. Monday’s meeting at the St. Joseph County Public Library was an effort to bring together other supporters to seek ideas for averting a shutdown — and to keep the community of residents together.

An online petition to save Portage Manor from closing, started by a local advocate two weeks ago, has amassed more than 3,700 signatures so far. More than 80 people attended Monday's 1½-hour-long town hall meeting.

The local affiliate of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, organized the meeting, President Trina Robinson said, because the NAACP values housing rights. Carl Baxmeyer, president of the board of commissioners, has pledged that the home wouldn’t close until an appropriate home is found for each resident, which could take a few years. But Robinson said the NAACP is still concerned that the current 103 residents could end up in inappropriate settings, then ultimately end up homeless.

Family members on Monday echoed what other advocates have said about the sense of community at Portage Manor: that people look after each other and that it’s a setting that works for them after having been in situations that didn’t. Staff prompt many residents on daily things like doing laundry and not putting a metal knife in the microwave. They’re residents who are physically capable but who struggle mentally with what’s known as executive functions.

Roy Saenz serves as power of attorney for a relative at Portage Manor, saying that, before he’d stepped into that role, police had retrieved his relative from a ditch. As a result, his relative had to spend time in a jail and hospital and, lacking health insurance, Saenz noted, such expenses eventually fall back on taxpayers and people who do have insurance. Now his relative is living stably at the home.

Saenz, a former GOP chairman for the county, has been vocal about saving Portage Manor at recent county meetings.

Trish Becker said her sister has lived at Portage Manor since the 1980s.

“They brought her so far,” Becker said of the staff and fellow residents.

Every year, Becker said, she invites her sister over for Thanksgiving. Her sister gets excited about it. Then she becomes overwhelmed by the notion, thanks to her mental condition.

“Every time,” Becker related, “she’d call two days before and say, ‘Thank you, but I’d rather stay home.’ That’s her home.”

Becky Egert also has a sister at the home, having lived there for three decades. And Egert has thought at times of having her come live with her.

Then, Egert said, she realized: “You place them somewhere else, and they’re out of their whole structure. She’s done so well. She’s only taken off two times. … I hope and pray this stays Portage Manor.”

Deb Fleming, the only one of the three county commissioners who oppose closing Portage Manor, came to Monday’s meeting. She has argued that she and her family have long been volunteers at the home, which she sees as important to save for the residents.

All four Democrats on the county council also attended. Unlike them, it has been the council’s Republican leadership, with a 5-4 majority, that has shown an unwillingness to keep the home open, citing the home’s financial issues and needs for renovations.

The council has yet to cast final votes on a resolution, passed 2-1 by the commissioners, to close the home, though on Feb. 28 the council voted 5-3 along party lines to recommend the resolution. Also that day, the council’s budget and administration committee debated a proposed $3 million in American Rescue Plan funding to help with staff salaries and bonuses through the closure. The committee sent it to the full council without either a favorable or unfavorable recommendation. The council will next meet on March 14.

On Tuesday, the commissioners voted 2-1 to approve paying a handful of staff from Byron Wellness in Fort Wayne to assist in placing Portage Manor’s residents in other homes as it closes. Byron has been serving as a consultant on the home. Fleming asked if the commissioners could delay that vote until they see the final outcome for Portage Manor.

Baxmeyer replied: “We made that decision. This is the next step. We need to do what’s best for the residents.”

Commissioner Derek Dieter then quickly moved for a vote.

At Monday’s meeting, Bryan Tanner, a Democrat on the council, gave a presentation and argument for why the county should explore other options for keeping Portage Manor — perhaps through new owners and a public-private partnership while using government tax credits to help with a renovation.

“We can’t get answers because this has been moving so fast,” Tanner said.

Several local residents have requested documents from the county to learn more about what consultants have advised the county on possible options for Portage Manor over the past couple of years. On Monday, those documents were finally released, though it’s well more than 300 pages of documents. A link is provided in this story online. 

“I think we are showing the people that want to close this down that there is a community desire to slow the process down,” Saenz said.

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Portage Manor in South Bend families seek saving county home