‘WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHY DO I HAVE TO LEAVE?’
Of Cristina Panagiotopoulos and her son, John, sheds light on government agency acting with impunity, watchdog says
John Panagiotopoulos and his mother, Cristina, are being evicted from their home after it was sold by the Quebec public curator, raising questions about the accountability of the body that takes charge of people who can no longer take care of themselves.
The bailiff ’s movers hauled boxes and piles of junk paper to a giant Dumpster in front of a Montreal triplex, while inside an elderly woman begged to be allowed to stay in her home of 50 years.
“Why are you doing this? Why do I have to leave?” cried Cristina Panagiotopoulos, 79, who until Thursday shared a ground-floor apartment on Hutchinson St. with her mentally ill son, John.
Mother and son are being evicted from their home after it was sold by the Quebec public curator, the government body that’s supposed to look after people judged unable to care for themselves.
The curator’s office is responsible for protecting and administering the assets of some of the most vulnerable members of society, including the mentally ill, stroke victims, Alzheimer’s patients and seniors who are deemed unable to handle their own affairs.
This eviction comes as a watchdog group is raising the alarm that there is no oversight or accountability when it comes to the assets or money – about $315 million in 2010 – that the curator manages for its 12,500 wards.
The drama of the Panagiotopoulos family is not an isolated case. There are other eviction cases and more abuses will surface with the aging of the population, warned Ura Greenbaum, head of the Montreal-based Association for the Defence of Persons and Property under Public Curatorship.
“This is a brutal eviction of a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder and his mother from their unmortgaged home,” Greenbaum said.
“The public curator claims this is for their protection. The victims don’t see it the same way.”
In May 1998, Quebec’s auditorgeneral issued a scathing report on the office, detailing years of widespread incompetence, mismanagement and neglect of those placed under the curator’s care.
But little has changed since then in terms of governance, largely because strict client confidentiality rules impede families with complaints or questions from finding out how the affairs of a ward are being handled, Greenbaum said.
François Loiselle, director of communications for the curator, said he could not provide details about the Panagiotopoulos case for reasons of confidentiality.
“But when someone doesn’t have all their faculties and are not apt to understand, it becomes extremely difficult,” he said.
Indeed, Panagiotopoulos, who speaks a little English and no French, says she does not understand how she ended up on the street homeless.
John’s obsession with hoarding worsened after her husband died in 2002, and her son inherited twothirds of the triplex, tracts of land in Laval, Oka and Val Morin.
According to John’s medical files, he was diagnosed in 1995 with the most serious manifestation of hoarding – Diogenes Syndrome or Squalor Syndrome – a disorder marked by abject self-neglect and extreme hoarding.
It’s a diagnosis he says he rejects even though boxes, papers, electronic parts, old candy wrappers and empty cigarette packages were piled ceiling-high Thursday, leaving a tiny passage to his mother’s bedroom, where only her bed was clutter-free. John, who doesn’t smoke, slept on a couch, surrounded by rubbish in the living room.
Alerted to an oil spill in the basement, the city cleared the apartment in December 2003, calling it a fire hazard and needed police intervention when John blocked access.
A few months later, Panagiotopoulos turned to her local CLSC, saying her son had become violent with her once his stuff was thrown out.
He quickly filled the apartment again and rented more storage space.
In 2005, he spent two months in prison for obstructing justice when the city came to throw out his stuff again. Panagiotopoulos agreed to make her son a ward of the state because she expected help with his psychiatric disorder.
“The public curator say they help. What kind of help is this?” she asked, standing amid some of her things on the sidewalk.
Court records show that, as of 2006, a few months after gaining guardianship of John, the curator started battling with the family for their home to cover costs such as decontaminating the basement of oil. John hired lawyers to defend his property from being sold, while simultaneously the public curator dipped into his account for their legal fees against him, he said.
That’s a totally absurd situation, he said in a 2008 letter sent to the ombudsman and various government officials: “In sum, I am paying for lawyers to sell my home against my wishes and I am also paying for lawyers to prevent the sale of my home.”
His mother also wrote the same government officials in May 2011 to demand an investigation after the Quebec Superior Court granted the curator permission to sell their house.
Financial statements provided by the curator in court documents show the Hutchison triplex was recently evaluated at $899,000, has a $40,000 mortgage (although bank statements show no mortgage) and also has $1,905 monthly revenues from two upper rental units.
Apart from $22,969 for the Val Morin land, there is no mention of the other land assets.
The curator petitioned the court to sell the building to cover mounting debts of about $1,000 a month, which includes an unexplained debt to the curator of $112,000, plus their annual fees of $3,385 and other honorariums of $2,142.
However, the family had successfully negotiated a $200,000 remortgage of the property prior to May 2011, a fact noted in the court judgment that called for a reassessment of the situation. The same day, the family fired their lawyer and did not appeal the judgment. The triplex sold in August for just under $800,000.
“There’s no justification for selling the house because we can get a mortgage,” John said.
There are other inconsistencies, said lawyer Alexandre Morin, who took the case three weeks ago. “If there is a conflict with the public curator, the law provides that we should name another tutor in order to manage the best interest of the person,” he said. But attempts to change guardianship have been unsuccessful.
Also, while John is a ward of the state, his mother is not. She owned one third of the triplex.
Morin’s motion to quash the writ of expulsion was rejected on the grounds that a previous judgment already existed, he said.
“This is a house he has lived in since he was a child. And the public curator forced him to sell it. On what grounds?” Morin said.
As the bailiff ’s men piled junk in the containers, John loaded his van with objects he said he needed. He plans to live on the street or in his van.
“It’s for their own good,” said bailiff Sylvain Trudel after changing the locks on the doors.
“Have you seen inside? You can’t live like that.”
Meanwhile, workers from the CLSC and the public curator tried to reassure Panagiotopoulos that her possessions will go into storage.
“I am so sorry – you have five minutes to leave. You have to go or we’ll have to call the police,” said a woman who refused to give her name and referred all questions to the Quebec public curator.
“I don’t want to go to storage to get my things,” Panagiotopoulos said crying.
“Please don’t throw me out.”