Due to changes in federal law, the Vera French Community Mental Health Center is preparing to open smaller residential facilities for its clients. Thusday morning it broke ground for a 15-bed, 3.6 million dollar, residential care facility in north Davenport.
Denise Beenk, director of Residential Outreach Services, says Vera French now has 60 people living at Pine Knoll in west Davenport. But federal agencies have started to enforce a rule prohibiting Medicaid funding if more than 16 people are living together.
So some of the Pine Knoll residents will transfer to this new facility on Sheridan Street.
The other residents will eventually transfer to the former Meadowlawn Nursing Home after it's renovated by Vera French.
Beenk says the agency is also planning to open some smaller homes for people with mental illness, with room for four or five clients and overseen by their staff.