Pride Group presents plans to buy group home property

Pride Group Inc. would like to buy Pride 1, a group home it now uses, from Plymouth County.

Pride Group is considering transitioning that existing group home into a residential care facility.

The Plymouth County Supervisors, Mike Porter, CEO of Pride Group, and Sharon Nieman, the county's central point coordinator for human services talked about that possibility Tuesday.

The supervisors agreed to hold a closed session at their meeting next Tuesday to further discuss selling the Pride 1 property to Pride Group. The county attorney will look into legal steps the board would need to go through if it decided to sell.

Porter said Pride Group's thoughts toward buying Pride 1, 200 12th Ave. S.E., in Le Mars, came after learning two of the group home's residents would be moving out.

Those two individuals will be moving into a rehabilitation waiver site. The remaining five consumers will also be moving to those home-like settings early next year, which will leave Pride 1 vacant.

Having consumers living in the waiver sites could save the county money because it will pay 38 percent of the cost of services there instead of the about $44 per client per day it is currently paying for Pride 1 residents.

The federal government pays the remainder of the cost of services.

Porter said initially the county's 38 percent share of the cost could be more than the $44 it currently pays with the transition from a group home to a RCF.

"As we transition we have to hire more staff," Porter said. "It's a cost-based scenario."

Nieman said consumers pay their own rent and utilities, so the county is just paying for its services for county residents in waiver homes.

She said since the Home and Community Based Waiver program started, the state is not readily licensing group home settings like Pride 1 anymore.

"Most everybody's needs can be met in these waiver type settings," Nieman said. "There's not a need for those types of placements."

For that reason, it could be difficult to fill Pride 1 vacancies, she said.

"Everybody's either out in the community or in an appropriate place," Nieman said. "It's just time for a change."

Porter said he would like to transition Pride 1 from a group home into a residential care facility (RCF) similar to Pride Group's existing one on Highway 3.

"It's going to be the same scenario. It still has to be inspected. It still has to be licensed," Porter said. "All the same things that you are talking about today still have to be met."

Porter said he would downsize the capacity of the RCF on Highway 3 from 50 beds to 42, housing eight of those consumers at Pride 1.

"Our thought would be to purchase it (Pride 1) through a contract with the county," Porter said. "The price, I think that's something you guys need to determine and if you are willing to consider selling the property."

Currently Pride Group pays $2,000 a month rent to the county for the Pride 1 property.

Supervisor Craig Anderson said he would like to tour Pride 1 and have more information before making any decision.

Porter reminded the supervisors that if they sold the property to Pride Group it would continue to be used to serve people with disability.

"It's not going to be bought off all the sudden and made into a new situation for somebody else," Porter said. "It could be put in the terms that it's still being used for that purpose."