Facing closure after severe violations, can Horry, SC assisted living centers be saved?

About 90 senior citizens in Horry County are in danger of needing to find a new place to live as state officials consider shuttering a pair of assisted living facilities.

Black mold, roaches, strong urine smells and unattended medicine bottles were among a lengthy list of violations reported last year at Oaks of Loris during numerous inspections, according to a February letter from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control describing the agency’s decision to revoke the facility’s license.

DHEC sent a separate letter in February refusing to renew the license for Inlet Oaks, an assisted living center in Murrells Inlet, for failing to fully complete its renewal application on time. The revoked and non-renewed licenses remain active, pending an appeal, which DHEC has 60 days to consider.

Both are owned by the same nonprofit, Partners in Hope Inc., but that ownership appears in flux, according to business filings and interviews with current management.

Terry McLean, owner of Capture Cares LLC, which is now managing the facilities and in the process of assuming ownership, laid the blame for their licensing issues with the former management company and Partners in Hope’s board, which included two elected Horry County officials.

“It was really bad, worse than you even see in the (DHEC inspection) report,” said McLean, who noted her company started volunteering at the Loris facility before being hired last November. “We came in to save (the residents). ... They were dying.”

The former management company Coastal Senior Solutions, operated by Denise Graham and Timothy Hucks, didn’t properly maintain Oaks of Loris, which is primarily residents on Medicare, and the board didn’t properly monitor Graham and Hucks, McLean alleged.

Hucks, a certified public accountant in Myrtle Beach, told The Sun News Friday that he left Coastal Senior Solutions because he was too busy with other work and declined to comment about the reported issues beyond saying it’s something current management needs to straighten out with DHEC.

Graham did not respond to voicemails left on phone numbers listed for her. She was previously blamed for the abrupt closure in 2019 of Magnolias Assisted Living in Myrtle Beach, which gave its residents just 48 hours to vacate. The manager at the time of closure alleged Graham, a former administrator there, convinced several residents to follow her to a different facility, decimating Magnolias’ finances.

Elected officials on board

Longtime County Coroner Robert Edge was the board president for Partners in Hope since at least 2019, according to Internal Revenue Service tax filings. He told The Sun News he joined the board at the request of Graham.

Edge said he hadn’t visited the Loris facility in a couple years, and the board rarely met since the coronavirus pandemic, but he had talked to Graham regularly and knew there was an ongoing DHEC investigation.

When asked what he remembers about those conversations or if he had any concerns, he declined to comment and said he didn’t feel comfortable answering these questions over the phone, suggesting the reporter would need to meet with him in person. But when The Sun News offered to continue the interview in person, he declined.

County Clerk of Court Renee Elvis was also on the nonprofit’s board, since at least 2020, according to IRS filings. She did not respond to requests for an interview prior to publication.

Edge resigned on Feb. 27 as the registered agent for Partners in Hope, according to a S.C. Secretary of State business filing, and it doesn’t appear any board members remain.

Saving the seniors

McLean said she wants to see those responsible for the horrendous conditions at Oaks of Loris held accountable, but not at the expense of the senior citizens who call it home.

She and her husband have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars cleaning and renovating the facility, including a lengthy, ongoing mold remediation project, McLean said.

William Culver, 61, said he’s been living at Oaks of Loris for nearly three years, and he doesn’t know where he’d go if it shut down because all his family lives in Utah.

“They took over one heck of a mess,” Culver said. “It was dirty, cockroaches galore.”

Culver and Thad Cameron, who turns 72 on Saturday, agreed when The Sun News toured Thursday that the facility has gotten a lot cleaner since new management took over.

Culver and Cameron are two of 39 residents at the Loris facility, while 52 live at the Murrells Inlet center, according to McLean.

DHEC officials declined to comment beyond providing the letters due to the pending appeals.