Nursing Homes spring up in private homes all over Mount Vernon

I live on a beautiful road in Mount Vernon near the ancestral home of George Washington, Mount Vernon. I have always counted myself lucky to have been able to live here. Several years ago my adult neighbors moved away and sold the back of their property, where immediately 8 houses went up in back of us on a pipestem. We refused to sell our back land although we were heavily lobbied by the usual real estate mavens. The people next door had two children, did loads of renovations and then moved away. The house remained empty for a while. A huge new McMansion was built next door to it and sold and was occupied. Then we noticed the house was full of workers living in it and renovating as they lived there.

A few months after that began, a man came to fix my stove top and as I knew him a bit, he told me of the lovely renovations going on next door, and it seems as if the next door owner was going to have 'some kind of nursing home'. That was the first I heard of this. The next thing I knew one morning, was helicopters flying over head for a couple of hours, and my neighbor spoke with one of the employees of the house next door only to find out that yes, it was not only a nursing home but a hospice for people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease who could not be kept in the hospital anymore but were near death. I was shocked. Houses here are very expensive. This is simply a residential neighborhood. There are no businesses here.

Then one night shortly afterward I was awakened by my bedroom shaking as if there were a motor in the room with me. That was the first of many nights I spent awakened by an ambulance parked and idling in the driveway. Ambulances can't turn off the life support equipment inside, and I guess death declaration have to be signed, and exam done before bodies can be removed from the house. The ambulances come and go. Sometimes it is many, sometimes not so many. The bedroom is always shaking, and it is almost always late at night when this happens.

The other problem is that the employees imagine themselves in a normal job and make a huge amount of noise in the driveway, talking, going down to get the garbage cans or dragging them down at 6:30 a.m. without a thought that they might be disturbing anyone, namely me. I have lived here at this address since February of 1981 and have never ever been unhappy or even called police because of nuisance noise. The family that lived in that house had 9 children and I never heard them unless there was a party at the house to which we were invited.

I am writing this so that all people who live in Mount Vernon and pay our high taxes should realize this could come to a street near you. I understand from local here say, that there is a house for sale on Rive Drive and these same owners a couple, are trying to put another such hospice into that house if they can buy it. A friend told me a story where she heard nearby there is a house for girls who have eating disorders.

It is my understanding that in a residential area a home can only have 5 in habitants, or three adults and 5 children. They have developed a scheme where they get referrals for patients from local doctors. I don't have any names. I am sure those doctors have invested in their scheme. They charge $250.00 per night for each patient and accept nor try to get any federal funds. That is how they do it.

With this kind of greed running rampant, watch any empty house near you. They will begin franchising. I do not want my property values to drop. I have been a law abiding and tax paying citizen my entire life and am sickened by this greedy and perverse attitude that one of the employees told me when I went over to question them. They said, "These are such nice people, and we need to help them". Not in a residential neighborhood, I said.

I contacted my neighborhood organization last July. They had no interest in hearing this story. If they move in next door to you, believe me, you will be interested. Half dead bodies and dead bodies coming and going many times a week is not a pleasant thing to bear witness too. You will not appreciate the ambulance in your driveway. Please take note. I respectfully submit this to you for FYI>