PVD City Council calls on governor, legislature to save Bannister House

Following a march on Thursday to the State House from Bannister House, a 125 year old progressive nursing home facility that because of financial difficulties is in receivership, the Providence City Council passed a resolution urging Governor Gina Raimondo and the General Assembly to do everything their power “to keep Bannister House in operation.”

Here’s the resolution the City Council passed last night.

Bannister House has been providing progressive nursing care in Providence since 1890, when it was founded as a facility for elderly Black servants who often had no other family with whom to live out the end of their lives. To this day, Bannister House still provides progressive elder-care. But financial difficulties have forced it to file for receivership, leaving the future for the 80 residents and 130 employees uncertain.

“Residents and staff consider each other like family,” said Shirley Lomba, a CNA who has worked at Bannister House for 13 years, “and family isn’t supposed to be broken up.”

The group marched to the State House, where there is a bust of Christiana Bannister, the namesake and initial benefactor of Bannister House.