Old nursing home to be hub for recovery and community care
Erie County Health Department closer to finish line acquiring Lutheran Memorial Home property
SANDUSKY —
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Erie County Health Commissioner Pete Schade remembers searching for extra space.
“We immediately started looking at a facility that we could use for what we call ‘a surge,’” he said. “Either to put patients in before they would go to the hospital … or the opposite, people who were leaving the hospital but were still kind of shaky and maybe shouldn’t be going home.”
That search led him to the shuttered Lutheran Home off Bardshar Road — a 104-bed nursing home that had closed after years of financial losses. With its clinic-style wings, dialysis spaces, and wide open rooms, the site was “perfect,” Schade recalled. COVID dollars went into preparing it as a backup care facility, though in the end it was never used for that purpose.
Instead, the property found a new role as an adult day care center for seniors with dementia or in need of social interaction. “Their caregivers needed a break,” Schade said. The owners leased the health department about 10,000 square feet for just $2,000 a month. “Which is a fantastic rate,” Schade said.
Genacross Lutheran Services, a faith-based nonprofit — continues to own the property, which was known locally as the Lutheran Memorial Home. It closed at the end of 2017
Over time, conversations with Genacross turned to the future. “Their frame of mind was, they’d like to see the nursing home rekindled and rebirthed on behalf of the vulnerable, at-risk people who might need a place to stay,” Schade said.
Now, after months of back-and-forth, the two sides have agreed to a sale price: $803,000 for the 45,000-square-foot facility sitting on nearly 12 acres. The agreement, Schade said, gives Erie County a rare chance to expand its “circle of care” for recovery and housing.
“The place has everything — multiple wings, bathrooms in almost every room, open space, even a big kitchen,” he said. “By January, I think we should be able to have people living in it.”
Plans are already in motion. Schade envisions one wing dedicated to men’s recovery, another to women and children served by a local nonprofit, and the possibility of partnerships with the city to better connect the site with neighboring Dorn Park. “We need to help people recover not just from drugs and alcohol, but from an economic downturn that they might be stuck in,” Schade said.
Though hurdles remain — state authorizations, renovations, and finalizing the lease-to-own agreement — Schade is confident. The first payment is expected this November, and he hopes to pay off the balance early next year.
For him, the project is about more than bricks and mortar.
“We know there’s a lot of people couch surfing, crashing at a friend’s house, or just in tough situations,” Schade said. “We’re not trying to be a homeless shelter. We’re trying to be a permanent solution for people, maybe just a step in the road, and then give them a helping hand.”
That mission, he said, is what keeps him from walking away from the job.
“I think it’s exciting for the community. We’ve seen the successes — people coming through detox, through our behavioral health programs. Six months later, it’s remarkable. It makes us keep wanting to work. I’m still motivated by the successes we’re having helping our friends and neighbors. And I think it’s great. That’s what we should be doing.”