Senior facility infested with vermin while state ignored complaints, Tulare Co. says
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tulare supervisors seek state comprehensive investigation into licensing inaction.
- County seeks reimbursement for relocations, mobile showers and related costs.
- Officials seek permanent revocation and lifetime nonrenewal of operator's license.
Tulare County Board of Supervisors wants to make sure the unsafe conditions at a now-closed residential care facility in Porterville that placed 22 seniors at risk never happen again anywhere in the state.
County officials said that despite 53 complaints filed over a five-year period against Autumn Oaks facility, the state Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division took “no meaningful correction action” against the facility, raising serious concerns about oversight, accountability and resident safety.
County officials said the state needs to be held accountable for the conditions. The county said it plans to send a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom this week expressing “our outrage for how our community and our elders have been abused and victimized by the state,” said supervisor Larry Micari.
“Clearly there was a breakdown in oversight, and meaningful corrective action was not followed. And so, who pays the price? The vulnerable seniors pay the price,” said Tulare County supervisor Eddie Valero.
Complaints against Autumn Oaks filed with the state included rodents, bedbugs and cockroach infestations, lack of hot water and operational showers, filthy living conditions, unsanitary food storage, as well as denied necessary medical treatment for residents.
Autumn Oaks, located off North Jaye Street in Porterville, shut down on Nov. 14 last year after the facility operators surrendered the license voluntary, according to the California Department of Social Service records, which oversees residential care facilities for the elderly.
The Bee tried to contact the operator of record. But the phone number for R & O Management Services, the facility's license holder on file with the state Department of Social Services, was no longer in service.
The 22 clients who lived at the facility had to be relocated by Tulare County Health and Human Services without any assistance from the state, said Dayna Wild, director of the Kings/Tulare Area Agency on Aging (KTAAA) and division manager with the county HHS Agency, Adult Services Division.
Wild said that in October 2025, KTAAA received a report regarding the conditions at Autum Oaks that described “potentially unsafe circumstances for residents,” and the agency asked Tulare County Environmental Health to investigate.
“I was a resident there, and it’s disgusting,” said 69-year-old Jerry Garber to the board of supervisors Tuesday morning during public comment.
Garber, who lived at Autumn Oaks for two months, said he would go into the kitchen at night to get his insulin and after turning the light on said, “the walls and floors was nothing but cockroaches.”
When sleeping at night, Garber said cockroaches would come across him.
“Worst two months of my life was spent there,” Garber said.
The officials want the state to reimburse the county for when the county’s HHS took over, including the cost of mobile shower units and securing food for residents, among other expenses.
According to the county, the state told the county its health and human service department bore full responsibility for conducting health screenings, coordinating the relocation of all residents, and determining their current health status, as no medical records or medication management information was provided after the facility voluntary surrendered its license.
Since the license to the facility was surrendered and not revoked, county officials are concerned that the individuals operating the facility in Porterville could obtain their license back to reopen another facility in the future.
“Hopefully this will never happen again. Hopefully the operator will never be able to operate a facility again,” said supervisor Dennis Townsend.
According to the county, the Porterville Police Department started a parallel criminal investigation into the facility that is now with the county district attorney’s office.
“It is appalling that our seniors, our vulnerable population, are being treated this way,” said Micari, also a member of the KTAAA governing board.
Micari said the letter will request the state to conduct a “comprehensive investigation” into the inaction of the state’s department of social services community and licensing division to prevent this from ever happening again; ask for full reimbursement for this incident, and a formal letter of apology to the seniors who were victimize by the inaction of the state.
He wants permanent revocation of the individual’s license and a lifetime non-renewal for future involvement in a licensed care providing facility.
“We must ensure that state agencies charged with protecting residents are responsible, transparent and equipped with enforcement tools,” Valero said.
This story was originally published March 4, 2026 at 3:53 PM.
