A care provider for 24 group homes for residents with disabilities in Summit County is going out of business.
Nearly 200 employees will be laid off.
None of the residents, however, will have to move out of their group homes as the nonprofit agency, Evant Inc. of Stow, is working with authorities to find new providers, said Evant Interim Executive Director Marilyn Weber.
“We are working with the Summit County DD (Developmental Disabilities Board) and the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities to ensure that the residents in facilities who are being provided services are able to continue to live within their current homes and are assisted to transition to services with a new provider as smoothly as possible,” she said.
Weber said she was not authorized to say why the agency was discontinuing its services. In a letter to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services notifying the agency of a mass layoff, Evant Board President Dale Ruther said 198 employees have been notified of the layoff, effective May 31.
Evant’s certification with the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities was suspended in March 2016 with a proposed revocation, said Billie Jo David, director of communications for the Summit County Developmental Disabilities Board.
David said care providers do go out of business, but Evant is one of the larger providers in the area.
“We have enough capacity in the provider community that there will be no disruption of service,” David said.
Evant provides care for two types of group homes. Fifteen “individual option” homes are residential houses with about four to six residents, David said. The residents have leases with the individual property owners of the homes, she said.
David’s agency is working with the residents to choose new care providers.
The other homes operated by Evant are “intermediate care facilities” certified through the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities. Evant’s Weber said those nine homes have been sold to another provider, though she was unable to disclose the name of the company. Residents will be able to stay in those homes, too, Weber said.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty