Hope House of the St. Croix Valley in Stillwater — a home for people who have HIV/AIDS — has closed following the suspension of its license by the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

DHS officials on Friday suspended Hope House’s license, citing an “imminent risk of harm” to the people served by the program.

The license suspension, which went into effect at 11:59 p.m. Friday, means Hope House, located in a large two-story Victorian in the North Hill neighborhood, is “prohibited from providing home and community-based services, including those services in the community residential settings,” according to the DHS.

DHS investigators on Feb. 5 found a number of issues at Hope House, which was founded in 1993 as a foster care for people living with AIDS.

Among the issues:

• Records for staff and persons served were missing or significantly incomplete;

• Services were being delivered without support plans or support plan addendums;

• Service recipients were not receiving necessary supervision;

• Incidents were not responded to or reported as required;

• Allegations or suspected maltreatment were not reported as required by mandated reporters;

• Staff members were not trained on (home and community-based services) licensing standards and the individual needs of each service recipient.

Other issues included medications administered incorrectly and/or without appropriate training, oversight, or documentation, service recipients not receiving three nutritionally balanced meals and nutritious snacks, and controlling individuals not being identified to the commissioner and the license holder failing to complete background studies.

“Based on these findings, DHS cannot ensure the health and safety of the persons served by your program at this time,” said Alyssa Dotson, the deputy inspector general of licensing at DHS, in her order. “DHS has determined that the health, safety, and rights of persons in your care are in imminent risk of harm. Therefore, DHS is suspending your license to provide home and community-based services.”

Hope House officials have the right to appeal the order, according to the DHS. Hope House officials did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment.

Casey and Teresa vanderBent founded Hope House in 1991; the first resident moved in in December 1993. Licensed under the Minnesota Adult Foster Care law, it was one of the first Twin Cities foster-care residences for people living with AIDS.

“It came out of a sense of a spiritual call,” Casey vanderBent told the Pioneer Press in 2018. “We both felt that there was something we were supposed to do.”

When the couple heard about Grace House in Minneapolis, the state’s first adult foster-care home for people living with HIV/AIDS, they knew they had found their calling. The couple formed a task force in 1991 with other parishioners from People’s Congregational Church in Bayport and began looking for a house.

The next year, the group paid $60,000 for a house that needed to be removed for the expansion of St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Stillwater’s South Hill. They then bought a double lot from the Stillwater Area School District — just north of what is now New Heights School — and moved the house across town, vanderBent said in the interview.

vanderBent said he could not comment on the closure.

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