A status conference in Suffolk County Superior Court on June 18 was supposed to mark the sale of the Edgar Benjamin Healthcare Center and its operations.

Instead, guardians of the nursing home’s residents were informed of yet another delay.

“It’s really, truly disappointing because this was supposed to be the final [one],” said Patricia Whitehead, the guardian of one Edgar Benjamin resident.

Leila Sylvain, another guardian, said the announcement in court left her feeling “a bit disheartened.”

“It feels like we’ve taken 10 steps back,” she said.

The court-appointed receivership recommended the $6.5-million sale of the Mission Hill facility, which is slated to transfer to New Jersey-based Allaire Health Services in July. The sale is expected to be a major step forward in the almost 27-month receivership that ousted former administrator and CEO Tony Francis after staff at the facility repeatedly went unpaid. Francis, at the same time, announced plans to shut down the nursing home, citing “insurmountable financial challenges.”

In May, the former administrator was sentenced to six months in prison for mishandling federal funds and faces a separate $3 million suit alleging he stole and embezzled from the facility.

The sale has been a moving target since it was proposed nearly a year ago, pushed from an initial deadline of September 2025 to December of that year and then to last February. In May, staff for the receivership said they were just finalizing documentation of the funds that would be left over after the sale of the facility.

The delays have left guardians concerned and staff at the facility frustrated and tired, said Leslie Joseph-Henderson, director of admissions.

“That was a long process with Tony Francis,” Joseph-Henderson said. “It’s been a long process through the receivership, and this is just like another long process,” she said. “You get tired, you know, you’re tired, like…you’re always operating kind of like on a flight response. You never have a period of rest.”

At the heart of the latest delay is a debate over roughly $700,000 in funds received by the facility since February for services provided before the receivership and Allaire signed a management agreement giving Allaire control of the facility’s operations, said Timothy Fraser, an attorney representing the receivership. That deal was made with the expectation that the sale would soon be completed, said Joseph Feaster, the Roxbury attorney who has served as court-appointed receiver since April 2024.

But the delayed timeline has put the nursing home’s outgoing and incoming management at an impasse, he said.

The receivership, Fraser said, believes that the $700,000 is supposed to be part of a pot of money controlled by the nonprofit entity that has operated the facility. “Those should be charitable funds that end up in our cashflow waterfall,” Fraser said, referring to the long-pending document tracking the proceeds from the sale, the various remaining financial obligations the nonprofit entity has and the dollars that will be left.

But, he said, Allaire has said it should have the funds, based on when it started managing operations.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Allaire Health Services said they are “confident that remaining details related to the transaction will be completed in short order” and are focused on the care of patients and residents at the facility.

Allaire also reaffirmed its commitment to taking over the facility.

The fate of a charitable fund that would pay off a handful of debts and liens on the property now depends on whether that $700,000 go to the nonprofit — along with other money left over from the sale of the facility. Under state law, those remaining dollars must be redistributed for charitable purposes that closely reflect the previous mission of the Edgar Benjamin.

The residual funds were once estimated to be about $1.9 million dollars. At the June 18 status conference, Fraser said that number would be $900,000 if the Edgar Benjamin receives the $700,000. Without it, the residual funds would be expected to be about $200,000.

Superior Court Justice Christopher Belezos, who oversaw the status conference, raised questions about the estimate dropping from nearly $2 million to potentially $200,000.

“How did it seemingly disappear?” he asked in court. “Where did it go and was it ever really there?”

Fraser said the shifting number is due to further conversations to refine the residual funds. But Belezos said he was concerned that if the conversations went on for too long, there wouldn’t be any residuals left.

“This deal needs to get done before all the assets go away,” he said.

While the receivership said the impasse isn’t expected to derail the sale, guardians of residents said the hiccups and delays have left them feeling like they’re in a precarious position.

“We have to be careful because we’re walking on a tightrope,” said Kamyra Harding, a guardian.

For those guardians, Allaire hasn’t always been a welcome arrival. Many community members felt that an out-of-state, for-profit company to take over the historically Black-led nonprofit nursing home was a poor selection.

Allaire — which owns 23 facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont — has faced reports of resident neglect, medication errors and staffing shortages in some of its facilities.

The company, however, may be one of the facility’s last chances to remain open, so the possibility of the deal falling through is concerning.

“At the end of the day, if Allaire is the only surviving footing for the facility, the fact that this is now a financial dispute is concerning,” Sylvain said.

Staff from the receivership asked the court to help iron out the details between it and Allaire to close the sale. Belezos set that meeting for the middle of July. His goal, Belezos said, is to get the facility and its finances to a place where it is steady and operational.

“I would rather have a river that continues than a waterfall one time,” Belezos said.