Walnut Manor in St. Thomas has been closed due to a variety of public health violations.
The announcement was made on Wednesday at a news conference, where officials described the home as an "unfit and unsafe environment to live in" - and shut down the facility under the authority of section 13 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act.
"We identified extensive mold contamination within the building, we also identified severe rodent infestation, bedbug infestation, we also identified gross food contamination, caused by the rodents," said Peter Heywood of Southwestern Public Health. "There were some other items related to no hot water, but that has since been rectified."
The 26 residents of the home will move until the facility can safely re-open - two staff members who live in the home have also had to move.
"The city stands behind Southwestern Public Health in their efforts to correct this situation," said St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston. "We'll do our part to offer the residents every support possible during this time of displacement."
Social services in St. Thomas is working with the residents.
"Southwestern Public Health has been working with the owner and the manager in a progressive enforcement approach that includes education and awareness," said Heywood. "In the event that there's non-compliance associated with the orders there are other enforcement tools within the health protection and enforcement act."
The owner has not been fined, and officials would only say they may pursue other actions when asked about potential criminal charges.
The home was also the scene of a fire in May, which launched this investigation.
"That kind of kicked off our look at and the inspection of our residence and finding the fire code violations that exist there," said St. Thomas Fire Prevention Officer Kim Destun, "We then pulled in other agencies and that's when public health began (their investigation)."
There were several fire code violations as well - all of which came up since the last inspection in 2019, according to investigators.
