APT is redeveloping the Everil Orr Village in Auckland's Mt Albert, and existing occupants were moved out early this year. Photo / Google Maps
Some elderly residents at an Auckland rest home watched a new village being built in front of them for almost three years thinking they would eventually be moving in, only to be evicted before it was finished.
Residents’ families shared their accounts of the situation of their whānau at Everil Orr Village in Mt Albert after the Herald revealed the abrupt closure of Auckland’s Mt Eden Wesley Care Centre.
Both Wesley, which is due to close in August, and Everil Orr - which shut in March this year - were run by retirement village giant Oceania Healthcare on land owned by a trust linked to the Methodist Church.
Oceania Healthcare and the land-owning Airedale Property Trust (APT) have both promised that no resident will be left homeless, but families are fuming at what they claim is the mixed messaging they have received.
Donna Schofield said she was “so angry” to read what had happened to Wesley Care Centre residents given what had happened months earlier to her father.
“My 92-year-old father had to be moved from Everil Orr Village in Mt Albert in February this year for exactly the same reason. Oceania gave the residents two months to leave. A short notice meeting was called for families to attend - we were not told why, just that it was important news.”
Schofield said some of those residents had lived at Everil Orr Village for 20-plus years and, like at Wesley, both Oceania and APT seemed at odds with the other as to why they shut at short notice.
“It was a bitter pill for families to swallow because at the time, a brand-new rest home [was being built] at the front of the old Everil Orr rest home,” she said.
Existing residents “were promised” a room in the new building at the same cost, she claimed.
Multiple sources have told the Herald other elderly residents had watched the new rest home being built since 2021 and some were told they would be moving in when it was finished.
Instead, the families were informed on January 25 they had until March 31 to move before the existing building was demolished.
“Some of the elderly were in tears at that meeting.”
Schofield said some of the Everil Orr residents were moved to Wesley Village on the advice of Oceania staff, only for that home to be closed a few months later.
“It’s absolutely disgusting the way they have been treated,” she claimed.
Trudi Gourdie’s mother was one of the residents staying at Everil Orr who ended up being moved to Wesley Rest Home.
“The Oceania representatives [said] they’d only just found out about this... they never answered the questions, particularly about the new purpose-built facility.”
Gourdie understands the care staff only found out about the closure a day before the residents, and said the move to get the residents out of Everil Orr seemed to occur at pace.
“My sister and I felt as our mother was bedridden ... there [should be] no rush to move her, but this was brushed aside,” she claimed.
“So, she was moved to Wesley Rest Home around mid-February. She died exactly a month later.
“So if mum was still alive now, we would have had to move her yet again,” she said.
Brent Pattison, Oceania’s chief executive, stressed that residents would be offered a spot at one of the company’s other sites and that their welfare was extremely important to him.
Pattison told the Herald the issue at Everil Orr occurred because APT decided to take over the operation of the facility that was being built. Oceania was surprised by the move, he said.
“We had always thought that we would be continuing to operate Everil Orr, and that’s why there was a truncated timeframe. I mean, effectively APT said, ‘We wish to take the site in a new direction and we wish to operate the site going forward’.”
Pattison did not confirm the exact date APT told them they were closing Everil Orr, but said the discussion with APT happened around “December or January” and that Oceania informed the residents on January 25 of this year the home would be closing.
Pattison was disappointed to hear that residents believed they had been promised a spot in the new building, but said Oceania did not give anyone assurances.
“The reason [residents] would have thought that is just like we [did] - we thought we were going to continue to operate the site.
“What has actually happened in practice is that [residents] absolutely have seen a new building being built, APT has taken on the operations of that new building and those beds have not been made available to those residents. That has nothing to do with us.”
Pattison confirmed three residents ended up at Wesley as part of the transfer from Everil Orr and that APT offered an extension on the Wesley home lease, which Oceania declined.
He said Wesley residents were made aware of the closure soon after Oceania received a “final agreement” from APT.
APT chief executive Dean Shields said over the past eight years, the company has been developing a retirement village on the property Everil Orr, and the third stage, which includes care suite facilities, is currently under construction.
“Until March 31 this year, the village was leased to Oceania, who operated the completed elements of the retirement village and an existing but dated care home on the site.”
Shields said residents at Everil Orr were notified on January 25 that Airedale would be taking over the retirement village. Separately, Oceania advised the residents that the care home was closing.
“Airedale was open to a longer transition period for the change in operator. However, the date of March 31 was preferred by Oceania.”
Prior to January 25, Shields said APT had no direct communication with residents of Everil Orr and did not tell them they would be moving into the new home as the new facilities would not be ready to open until at least August 2023.
“While we are now aware that some residents were expecting to move to the new facility, we understand that no representations were made ... to residents to suggest this.
“We have extended considerable flexibility on timing to Oceania at both Everil Orr and the Wesley sites and will continue to play our part to ensure everyone is cared for and looked after fairly.”
Jaime Lyth is an Auckland-based reporter who covers crime. She joined the Herald in 2021 and has previously reported for the Northern Advocate.