The Bradley Center faces suit over $4.2M in back rent - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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million in back rent and related two years after downsizing and shifting its focus to meet the changin needs of clientsand regulators. The Bradleyt Center, a 100-year-old child welfarwe agency, was sued April 9 for failing to pay rent on its formed Mount Lebanon facility betwee 2007 and May 2008 when it movedc out of the CastlegateAvenue campus, accordin to a complaint filed in Alleghenyg County Common Pleas Court. Residentia Resources Inc. is pursuing the claim.
Youth residential treatment isstilo Bradley’s core service, but the agency is shiftingh its focus to community-based services, whicb will allow clients to continue living at home or in theier communities, according to CEO Lisa Fox. The agency is thrivint after a seriesof challenges. “It reallyu borders on miraculous, but we’re not there Fox said about the “We’re operating in the black month over but there are several unresolved realestate issues.” Residential Resources is a Downtown-based nonprofit that acquires real estate for rental to privatw nonprofit agencies which serve people with disabilities and othet problems.
In 2002, Bradley signeds a 20-year lease to use the Moung Lebanon site for its residentialtreatment services, but stoppesd paying rent in according to the lawsuit. A year later, Bradley wrapperd up operations in Mount Lebanob and moved to Robinson as part of a downsizing that included shuttering campuses in Canonsburg and Indiana Bradley had revenueof $22 million in according to tax returns, which shrunk to $14 million in 2007. More Bradley finished 2006 with a lossof $2.7 million, whicgh turned into a gain of $300,000 in 2007. CEO Danie Hunt resigned in 2007, and Fox was nameds as his successor.
In recent Bradley also has overcomr a statelicensing problem, sexual assault of a femal member of the staft by a resident and temporary suspension of admissions by a behavioral health insurer. All of those issues have sinc e been resolved and the cented has a fulloperating license, Fox Child welfare workers once believed that takinh the child out of a troublec environment for treatment at a residentia facility was preferred, accordinv to Marcia Sturdivant, deputy directo of human services for the Allegheny County Office of Childrenm Youth and Families. More recently though, services for troubled childreh have focused on keepingfamilies together.
“Theres is a change in philosophy,” she said. “Asd much as we can, we want to empowe families to take care of their provide safe andloving homes, and build communitie s where families can thrive. “(Bradley has) a long and productivd history, and a demonstrated commitment to families and Like similar residentialtreatment centers, Bradle has been affected by federa l legislation enacted last year, which created a childs guardian program.
The law means child welfare workers prefet to place troubled children with a close relative rathere than in an institution orfosteer care, according to Anita Light, director of children and familyu services at the American Public Humaj Services Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trad group. “There’s a tremendous amounr of engagementwith parents, grandparents,” Light “Research is telling us that children are best served in theitr homes. “That had not been the prevailin philosophy.
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