Ramona Giwargis talks about a series of stories she is working on regarding mental health services in Nevada, including filthy conditions at group homes, a woman placing clients in unlicensed group homes as well as a woman who was found dead after being placed in one of those homes.
A year after Nevada health officials closed a taxpayer-funded home where mentally ill people lived in filthy conditions, a mental health clinic continued placing people there — until reporting by the Las Vegas Review-Journal prompted state regulators to shut it down again this week. The home is owned by Emperatriz “Emper” Ebiya and for years was part of a state program that pays people to house mentally ill clients in their homes. But in December 2016 state officials discovered “deplorable conditions” at her home and shut it down. The squalid conditions at such homes are a widespread problem in Nevada, which has 142 community-based homes for people with mental illness. State officials declined to provide addresses for homes of mentally ill residents. The Review-Journal found and visited six of the homes in Las Vegas. A recent audit uncovered conditions — human feces, broken glass, expired food, filthy mattresses, mildew and rodents — at 37 homes statewide.
Nevada Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton on Wednesday reacts to a state audit that uncovered dismal conditions inside 37 homes across Nevada that house mentally ill residents. (Ramona Giwargis/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
