Families and advocates for veterans at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke — where 76 residents have died from COVID-19 since March — are pressing state leaders to commit to plans to expand and renovate the facility before a federal grant program expires in August.
The coalition calling for a $132 million capital investment and a new wing at the veterans’ home rallied for street demonstrations in Holyoke today and is collecting signatures to petition state lawmakers, organizers said.
“It just really needs to be done,” said Paul Barabani, the former superintendent of the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke who quit in protest in 2015, citing inadequate funding and unmet needs of residents. “It’s what should have been done in 2013.”
Barabani said the crowding of veterans in rooms, the lack of private bathrooms and the use of community bathrooms by residents and staff played a big role in the spread of coronavirus inside the building.
“If it was a new building with 270 private rooms, it certainly would have slowed the spread (of the virus),” Barabani told WGBH News Tuesday.
The outbreak at the Holyoke veterans’ home is among the nation’s deadliest and is under investigation by several agencies, including the Massachuetts' Office of the Attorney General, the Inspector General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney in Boston.
Barabani and other backers want Gov. Charlie Baker to embrace a 2013 plan to demolish part of the facility and build a new 53,000 square foot addition. The project would be eligible for reimbursement of more than half the construction costs from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The State Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which oversees veterans’ affairs in Mass., said the construction plan needs to be updated before the state would commit.
“Long-term solutions must include current needs for infection control, revised VA building standards and codes and other needs to support safe and quality care for veterans,” the health agency said in a prepared statement.
Two state reports from 2016 also cast some doubt on the demand for long-term care for veterans in western Mass. One study from MIT found that 45 percent of the state’s veterans live in Middlesex, Worcester and Essex counties and recommended investment in the veterans’ home in Chelsea, not Holyoke.
Two years ago, state lawmakers appropriated $199 million for 154 new beds at the Soldiers' Home in Chelsea.
Barabani questioned any resistance from the state to move forward immediately with plans to fix longstanding problems at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke. He said the demand for beds at the Holyoke home has always been high with years-long wait lists.
The deadline for the state to commit to this year’s VA funding cycle is July 31.
“To sit back and do nothing is to bury your head in the sand,” said Barabani. “We need to bring justice for the veterans and their families for what they have lost.”
There are currently just 120 veterans living at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. When the outbreak hit in March, about 200 lived there.
Since early April, state health officials have been closely overseeing the operation of the home but for years the nursing home for aging veterans has operated without a visit by a state inspector and has not faced any state enforcement, despite costing taxpayers more than $24 million a year to operate.
Unlike hundreds of other nursing homes in Massachusetts, the 247-bed facility in the western part of the state is not inspected by the Department of Public Health. The state’s long-term care ombudsmen program — which handles complaints from residents and acts as a watchdog for abuse — also doesn’t serve the veterans’ home in Holyoke.
The agency enforcing standards at the Holyoke facility is the VA, whose inspectors have typically uncovered just a few or no serious problems at the home in their annual surveys. Documents obtained by WGBH News show one unmet standard repeatedly flagged by inspectors since 2016 was overcrowding of veterans living here.
The VA accepted the facility's promises each time to fix the crowding, according to the survey reports.
