2nd adult care facility license removed

BELDING, Mich. (WOOD) - Regulators have removed the license to run a Belding adult foster care home from an operator who has had trouble with the state before.

State investigators say the Gibbs AFC in Belding, run by Tricia Parsons, was $20,000 behind on the rent. The power company was about to turn off the juice.

Belding police made nine runs there in less than three months to break up fights. Additionally, one resident who shouldn't have been outside without supervision was found in May 2012 by a Michigan State Police trooper strolling alone down a road 20 miles away.

State regulators call that "repeated failures to protect the health safety and welfare" of the disabled and mentally ill residents.

The State Department of Human Services now says it is checking to see if similar homes Parsons runs as unlicensed room and board houses should be licensed.

A new operator is already taking over the Belding facility.

"The only way you run a business and run it properly and don't get into trouble," said new operator Tim Adams. "You have to do everything correct."

Adams and his wife Jessica are now operating the home.

"We have lots of plans for a lot of remodeling, that sort of thing. But the care has to be primary and those people have to be given excellent care and I think the supervision has to be there all the time," Tim Adams said.

"Just a nice home for people that have difficulties and need assistance in everyday living," Jessica  Adams added. "I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to seeing the darkness turn into something bright."

Tim and Jessica Adams have been in the adult foster home business for decades and say want to make life better for the residents at the Belding home.  

"I think the whole mindset needs to be changed and I discussed that with mental health and the care has to be the prime issue here," said Tim Adams.

They wouldn't talk about Parsons or the way she ran the home, but say they do things differently.

"Your bills come first. Your residents come first, and then whatever. You have to do everything right. There's a reason why you're licensed," said Jessica Adams.

Parsons' license to operate a home outside Holland has already been suspended. Target 8 Investigators reported on the long history of trouble there last November. In February, Target 8 reported Parsons found a way to duck state regulators at a home in Palo where two residents died in a fire.

Now, state investigators say she lacks the capability to run an adult foster care home.