Latest news with #FishingPoint
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Portsmouth neighbors' frustration builds, waiting for answers surrounding group home in residential neighborhood
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — For the second time this month, the Board of Zoning Appeals has continued a case involving a group home in the Pinehurst community in Churchland. Investigation: Portsmouth neighbors concerned about Nansemond Indian group home Fishing Point, the healthcare affiliate of the Nansemond Indian Nation, purchased the home last September at 4533 Wake Forest Road. Fishing Point intends to operate the 3,600-square-foot Cape Cod as a group home, but opponents in Pinehurst, along with adjoining Green Acres and Sterling, say it will be a business and will harm property values. Diana Williams of the neighborhood association was ready to address the board until it granted attorney Bryan Plumlee's request for a continuance until June 25. She said the entire process has been anything but transparent. 'We were shocked because we thought that if this was going to be the use of our private property in a private neighborhood, a civilian neighborhood, that we should be informed and at least given advance notice, and none of that was done,' Williams said in an interview outside the meeting. Plumlee declined to go on camera. However, he said the home will house eight women or fewer, but did not say for what. 'If word gets out and it already has,' Williams said, 'that this community does not recognize the distinction between commercial and residential use, and will allow anybody to put a business operating anywhere.' Neighbors say they have no beef with Nansemond Nation, rather, it's what they see as the erosion of their community for monetary means. 'It's not the residents. It's not even the company,' said Jane Jackson, who lives on Wake Forest. 'It's the commercial business setting up in a residential neighborhood. There is no way that it will not lower property values. None.' Technically, Fishing Point needs a special permit to operate a group home in a neighborhood that's zoned residential, but Plumlee cast doubt on that as he addressed the board. 'As a federal facility we're not required to abide by the zoning ordinance,' he said, 'and your zoning ordinance recognizes this.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Investigation: Portsmouth neighbors concerned about Nansemond Indian group home
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The reactions to the new owner of a single-family home in the established Pinehurst neighborhood range somewhere from 'not in my backyard' to 'I don't have a problem with it.' The property on Wake Forest Road was purchased last September by Fishing Point, the healthcare affiliate of the Nansemond Indian Nation, but it's unclear what it will be doing at the home. Pinehurst is an established Churchland neighborhood off High Street, where the homes date back to the 1950s. And what's also been around for decades — the kind of controversy surrounding the new neighbor. Previously: Nansemond tribe brings medical and mental health care to underserved communities 'This is a nice neighborhood,' said Andrew Jenkins, who lives across Wake Forest from the Fishing Point property and has children who play in the neighborhood. 'I'm not saying they're bad, but why throw a stick in the balloon and pop it for no reason.' Fishing Point already has existing operations on London Boulevard in Portsmouth and Forehand Drive in the Deep Creek section of Chesapeake. Neighbors say they've heard various versions of how the home on Wake Forest Road will be used. 10 On Your Side knocked on the door during a visit in April. A woman inside repeatedly responded, 'I'm not at liberty to say,' when we asked about how the property would be used and who would live there. A Fishing Point van was parked in the driveway emblazoned with the message 'Transformative Mental Health Care for All.' Some neighbors wonder if that means recovery from alcohol and substance abuse. 'I get it,' Jenkins said. 'They're trying to better themselves. But why do it in a residential neighborhood?' Next door, a different perspective. '([I have no problem] with them, no sir,' said Wayne Brown, who recently moved to the neighborhood from Texas. 'Those people need a place.' City records show the 1951 Cape Cod home has 3,600 square feet of living space. Fishing Point bought it last September for $550,000, more than twice what it sold for ($260,000) just three years earlier. They've been pouring money into it ever since. 'I noticed they did a lot of repairs and it seemed like an endless amount of improvements,' Brown said. 'They made the place look very nice.' 'It's zoned residential,' said Portsmouth Deputy City Attorney Jeff Miller, outside last week's meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals. Fishing Point has a current case before the BZA, and they were on the docket last week but their main attorney didn't show and it was continued to May 28. 'They had not complied with the zoning requirements to operate their group home,' Miller said. And despite the well-manicured lawn, the case gets into the weeds legally when it comes to the definition of a group home 'which under state law is not treated as a business. It's treated almost as a single-family residence,' Miller said. Miller said with the proper permit and then a business license, Fishing Point can operate its home in the Portsmouth neighborhood, even if they're not welcome. 'End of the day, nobody wants this,' Jenkins said. 'When you work that hard to buy a house and the next thing you know things are popping up in the neighborhood. This has nothing to do with the neighborhood at all.' Other neighbors told us off-camera: 'I'm not comfortable with this with all the kids in the neighborhood' and 'I understand you're doing a story, but I don't want any retribution.' Again, Brown doesn't see a problem. 'I'd rather they have a nice looking place to keep them than some slum, he said. 10 On Your Side reached out to the attorney for Fishing Point and its media contact, but got no response. If Fishing Point gets the necessary permit for the group home, and then a business license, it looks like they are on Wake Forest Road to stay. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Nansemond Indian Nation says Virginia is withholding Medicaid funding in new lawsuit
Fishing Point Healthcare's original clinic in Portsmouth opened in 2024. It's since opened one in Newport News, with plans for further expansion. (Photo by Laura Philion/WHRO) By Ryan Murphy/WHRO The Nansemond Indian Nation is accusing the state of Virginia of undermining its sovereign rights and violating federal law by refusing to pay out $1.7 million in Medicaid claims. The tribe alleges in a new federal lawsuit that state agencies and officials are trying to shift the blame for Virginia's financial mistakes and coerce Fishing Point Healthcare, a clinic operated by the tribe, into a new structure to compete less with other private providers. 'Rather than partnering with a federally recognized Tribal Nation to improve health-care access for low-income families and stabilize Virginia's own faltering healthcare infrastructure, Virginia officials have instead weaponized the Commonwealth's administrative machinery to punish a Tribal Health Program that dared to step into the breach,' reads the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday. The filing says Virginia appears to have thought Fishing Point would only be serving tribal members. The suit says state agencies likely claimed an incorrect amount for Medicaid payments for non-Native American patients than allowed, 'thereby creating a substantial risk that the federal government would reclaim millions of dollars from' the state. The tribe says the state argued after the fact that some of the services Fishing Point was providing were not authorized for Medicaid reimbursement 'so they could shift any repayment obligation' onto the Nansemond. The state also pushed the tribe to rework its clinic structure, away from the federally-recognized Tribal Health Program and to a model similar to private companies contracted with the state. The tribe argues the state's pressure was intended to limit Fishing Point's competition with other private providers. The filing alleges the state has refused to pay out any Medicaid reimbursements for some services since October, and as of March 31stall of Fishing Point's Medicaid claims were frozen – a total of 7,650 worth about $1.7 million – 'thereby weaponizing the billing process to coerce Plaintiffs into capitulating to Defendants' demands.' Efforts to reach Virginia's Department of Medical Assistance Services, which manages Medicaid in the state and is named as one of the defendants in the filing, received no response Wednesday. Fishing Point says it's continuing to provide care to both tribal members and non-Native American patients, but the funding freeze 'represents a financial chokehold that threatens to cripple Fishing Point's ability to sustain operations,' according to the lawsuit. The Suffolk-based tribe started Fishing Point Healthcare in 2023, five years after it was federally recognized. Federal recognition allows tribal nations to provide health care to its members and serve anyone using federal healthcare assistance like Medicaid. The system started with a clinic in Portsmouth and Fishing point just opened its second clinic in Newport News. Fishing Point CEO Lance Johnson told WHRO earlier this year the health system has plans for expansion to other cities over the next few years, including a Norfolk clinic already in the works. This story was originally published by WHRO Public Media, the Hampton Roads region's largest media company.
