A senior living facility in Florida has sparked outrage after reportedly booting out residents in order to convert their homes into luxury apartments.
Oasis Living Quarters, in Fort Lauderdale, has already faced a court injunction over the alleged evictions, and is now being fined over conversion work that officials say is being carried out without permits.
“To me, this is why I’m so aggressive with this particular case,” Fort Lauderdale Building Committee Vice Chair Donald Karney III said during a meeting Tuesday morning, per Local 10 News.
“They’ve done these people extremely dirty and that’s why I’m being such a stick in the mud about it.”
The Independent has reached out to Oasis for comment, though administrator Steven Gottlieb previously denied to Local 10 News that any evictions have taken place.
However, according to Andrew Gebbia, a Fort Lauderdale building inspector, work is being done, including “the replacement of kitchenettes, structural plumbing and electrical and replacement of split-unit ACs.”
Gebbia told Local 10 News that during an inspection of the facility he had observed renovations being done in “a number of rooms” and that they were “much like hotel rooms.”
“There were no permits issued for this work, so I issued a stop work order, left it on the counter in the main entrance,” he said.
It was unclear if access to Oasis was available via a website, and review sites for the facility listed it as “closed.”
Per city officials, Oasis will now be fined $1,000 per day if they don’t come into compliance within 15 days.
Relatives of residents have also been outraged by the sudden transitions by the facility. Jim Woods, whose 93-year-old mother had been at Oasis for almost 10 years, said a notice in March had informed him that she needed to vacate the property by April.
"I wasn't getting a signal that they were changing their business profile, but I saw a change in the level of care and that concerned me," he told CBS News.
Woods said that prior to his mother’s eviction notice, over the past six months, he noticed staff reductions and less interaction with residents. His mother was included in some 180 residents that were told they were to move out, he said.
