Elderly Man In Nursing Home Had Surprise Under His Bed, So County Strips His Housing Subsidy

A elderly man in an assisted living facility outside of Philadelphia, who was enjoying his time in the nursing home on the county taxpayers’ dime, got kicked out earlier this year and lost his subsidy altogether after nurses caught him with an interesting surprise under his bed.

And while booting a senior citizen out of a nursing home may seem pretty cold-hearted, the nursing home officials thought they had a pretty good reason.

The incident happened in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania — public reports did not name the elderly man, said to be in his 70s, or the facility where the rather eyebrow-raising discovery took place. The story came to light when county commissioners at a public hearing were discussing the status of contracts with private assisted living facility operators.

The private operators routinely explain why the amount of subsidy cash required goes down from time to time. The usual explanation, given the population the facilities serve, is death. But the operators told the commissioners that in one case, a nursing home resident had to be expelled.

The county reportedly granted subsidies to 21 different senior citizens last year, to help cover their costs of staying in the assisted living facilities contracted by the county. The total cost was about $1 million.

At the commissioners meeting last week, Montgomery County renewed contracts with three facilities for more than $500,000.

So why was this one gentleman expelled from his nursing home? According to an explanation by Montgomery County Chief Financial Officer Uri Monso, the reason was “misconduct.”

Apparently, this elderly man, described by Monso as “a more mobile gentleman,” was running a racket in which he would leave the facility under his own power and go on a booze run.

When he came back to the nursing home bearing bottles of liquor, he sold it at a profit to his thirsty fellow senior citizens, who apparently were looking for ways to relieve the monotony of nursing home living.

But the gentleman in question had other ways of dealing with his own boredom. It appears that he was taking his profits from his liquor sales and re-investing it, so to speak — in hiring prostitutes for his own personal entertainment.

In fact, the whole scheme came unraveled when nurses entered his room only to find an unauthorized visitor hiding under the elderly man’s bed. Yes, the woman was one of the man’s diversions, a local prostitute.

Now that the elderly man has been removed from the facility for his “misconduct,” the county is no longer required to pay his housing subsidy, Monso explained.

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