Local News in Brief : Eviction Order Upheld

A federal judge declined Wednesday to halt the eviction of 14 mentally disabled residents of a Van Nuys board and care home who have been ruled “incompatible” with the home’s elderly clients, but the judge did order the state to reevaluate its findings.

“I have a judicial conservative’s native reticence to go ordering the state about the details of its business . . . (but) maybe we could all save ourselves a lot of trouble if somebody in the department took another look at it,” U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. said.

Residents of the California Villa Retirement Home are challenging new state regulations that require the Department of Social Services to decide whether residential facilities for the elderly offer care appropriate for mentally disabled people younger than 60, arguing that the regulations offer residents no chance for a hearing before the state makes its findings. State officials say the regulations are designed to make sure that state licensed facilities are not housing residents whose needs they are not equipped to meet.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Richard T. Waldow said he will recommend that the department reevaluate its ruling in the California Villa case but said the state has no plans to redraft the regulations.

Gadbois said the mentally disabled residents who filed suit challenging the regulations would be entitled to return to court, should the state actually issue an eviction order.