In a move to bolster its bottom line, the New England Homes for the Deaf gave Francis Peabody a roommate.
"I'm happy with it, actually," Peabody, who is deaf, said through staff interpreter Esther Leonard.
Without putting a shovel in the ground, the Danvers facility has increased its rest-home capacity from 30 to 51 beds by doubling up many who once lived alone.
Peabody is now bunking with Alice Belcastro, a 74-year-old woman who is both deaf and blind. Peabody has lived at the rest home on Water Street for five years.
"I like my roommate a lot. ... She's a very sweet woman," Peabody said.
Leonard sat down next to Belcastro, grasped both her hands and signed into them.
"Yes, I do like living with Frances," said Belcastro, who has lived in the rest home for more than a year.
The nonprofit New England Homes for the Deaf is feeling the grip of the recession, especially when it can cost more to care for the deaf and the deaf-blind than it does for those who can hear.
A 2007 audit for the nonprofit, the latest year available online from the attorney general's office, shows an operating loss of nearly $470,000. That was due in part to expenses in the aftermath of the Danversport explosion.
"The financial picture today looks better than in 2007," Executive Director Barry Zeltzer said, "but we do have a lot of work ahead of us."
The lion's share of the revenue comes from Medicaid payments. Because many of the deaf were underemployed and undereducated, they wound up on Medicaid, Zeltzer said, the federally and state-funded health program that covers the needy and the disabled. Those payments do not take into account the expense of caring for the deaf. The homes spent nearly $100,000 on interpreters in 2007.
The institution, which has been serving the deaf community since 1901, is now exploring ways to shore up its bottom line. It has begun offering short-term rehabilitation stays and wound-care treatment to the hearing and deaf alike.
"We are reaching out to hearing people, letting them know we have exceptional rehabilitation services for them and wound care," Zeltzer said.
Reimbursements under Medicare, the government's health program for seniors, can offset what Zeltzer said are inadequate reimbursements under Medicaid.
"If you break your hip, come to us," Zeltzer said.
Range of care
The New England Homes for the Deaf is one of just two such homes in the country that provide a "continuum of care" for the deaf and deaf-blind, Zeltzer said.
Author and activist Helen Keller and her companion, Anne Sullivan, were once board members, and they helped relocate the deaf home from Everett to its present waterfront location in Danvers in the mid-1920s.
Today, the organization offers independent and assisted living and skilled nursing care to deaf and deaf-blind residents who range in age from 30 to nearly 100. The Thompson House independent-living wing opened in 1997 with 24 units and now has a 20-person waiting list, Zeltzer said.
In 2004, the agency opened a 60-bed, state-of-the-art skilled nursing and rest home facility, moving out of its landmark Victorian mansion. This June, in an attempt to shore up its finances, the organization sold off a portion of its campus, including the landmark Riverbank mansion, to a local developer, the Thomson Companies, for $800,000, records show. The developer plans to preserve the 1853 mansion and adjacent stone carriage house and turn them into 16 luxury condominiums.
Care can be costly
Caring for the deaf is more expensive than caring for hearing patients, Zeltzer said, because of communication issues. The added cost stems from the requirement to have all staff learn American sign language, which means the facility has to hire teachers and pay staff while they sit in a classroom on site.
When it comes to legal, medical or mental-health issues, certified interpreters are always used.
"So, those things cost us a lot of money beyond what the expenses of a hearing home (are)," Zeltzer said.
Activities for deaf people can be led by one person using sign language, but activities for the deaf and blind require one interpreter for each participant.
"It's a challenge we are continually working on," Zeltzer said.
The plan to add roommates and increase capacity in a search for private-pay clients was met with some resistance from residents, but Zeltzer said having a roommate can be a good thing, if the match is done right.
"Many times a resident who lives alone will become very depressed and withdrawn," Zeltzer said. "They don't want to partake in activities."
"We need it, we are broke," joked Ida Vernon, 95, also known as "Momma Ida." She has no problem rooming with Alice Monahan, who is deaf.
Vernon, a mother of six with 14 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, has lived at the facility since it opened in 2004 and hails from Connecticut. She can speak because she went deaf at age 8. Vernon said residents were a little upset at first because they were used to living alone.
"After a couple of weeks, it didn't bother me anymore," Vernon said.
Monahan, formerly of Dorchester, used to live at the Thompson House for several months before her husband died, and she said she would rather be living in her own home but has no problem having one roommate.
"Two is perfect," she said.
Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or by e-mail at eforman@salemnews.com.
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