Housing At Risk For 40 Residents Of Unpermitted Medical Respite Facility

Sarah Trout never thought she would be living in a recuperative care facility.

The 49-year-old Riverside resident said she was a nurse in the Inland Empire for over 20 years. During the pandemic, she worked overtime, at times at the detriment to her health. 

Despite the long hours, she remained focused on providing  a comfortable life for her two young daughters. That is, until she got hurt. 

“I was at home, and I fell, and I broke my leg,” Trout said. “And then, two weeks later, I fell and broke my elbow.” 

She was in and out of the hospital for years following the 2021 incidents. Eventually, she was evicted from her Arlington neighborhood apartment and compelled to send her children to live with her former spouse. For the next four years, she lived without a stable home.

But after a recent stint in the hospital last November, she was connected with a short-term residential support organization for people experiencing homelessness. Based in Riverside, Haven Care Solutions helps individuals recover. Trout has since taken up residence at the former Palm Inn Hotel and received help from staff to recover while she searches for work. 

“If I didn’t have here to come to, I would have been back at the hospital within days,” she said. “I was able to feel normal. In this place, [it] does help with that. It gives you that independence.” 

However, Trout is one of about 40 people living at the hotel who are at risk of losing their short-term housing. Two days before Christmas, the city of Riverside sent a cease and desist letter to Haven Care Solutions, alleging that the business had violated several city zoning laws. 

“Each day you continue to operate without required permits shall be regarded as a new and separate offense,” the city’s letter, obtained by The Riverside Record, states. “If necessary, the city of Riverside is prepared to initiate a civil nuisance action in the Riverside County Superior Court and to seek reimbursement for its attorney’s fees and costs for prosecuting such action.”

Haven Care Solutions opened in the shell of what was once the Palm Inn Hotel July 12, 2025, according to co-owner Michelle Ocampo. Both she and her husband, Justin Ocampo, previously worked as nurses in the Inland Empire for more than a decade before deciding to open the respite care facility.

The location, between La Sierra Avenue and Tyler Street in the heart of Ward 6, is one that some city leaders consider to be a hot-bed for homelessness and crime — partly for its abundance of cheap motels that have been subjects of excessive police calls over the years.

“We really wanted to be in the heart of Riverside to help people,” Ocampo said. “It would make no sense to open up by The Mission Inn. We really wanted it centered [to] focus on the people that are currently dealing with this.”

In six months, Ocampo said the facility had taken in more than 100 people and helped more than half transition to more permanent housing. She added that they’ve also helped people secure jobs, sign up for federal supplemental income programs and consistently receive their prescribed medications. 

Ocampo said her facility had dramatically decreased the number of police calls to the property when compared with police data collected from a year and a half preceding the opening of Haven Care Solutions. 

“It was averaged to 28 calls a month before Haven Care,” Ocampo said, pointing to a stack of police incident report files. “When we came in, from July all the way up until the present date, there’s only been 78 calls.”

Despite the success Ocampo said the organization was having at the Magnolia Avenue-based hotel, Ward 6 Councilmember Jim Perry said they’ve been operating under the radar of the city without the appropriate permits. This, he said, violated several city zoning codes regulating hotel property uses in commercial areas.

Perry, who spoke with The Record over the phone but requested it not be recorded, said that his team and the city first found out that the facility was not in compliance while conducting a routine walk through of the area. He said it caught his team by complete surprise and was quickly brought to the attention of the city attorney’s office. 

The facility could have prevented the current situation, he said, if they had followed the city’s rules. That included submitting an application for a conditional use permit, among other paperwork. The application, Perry said, would have been thoroughly inspected by the city’s planning commission and brought up to him to review. He said the process could take months to complete.

He added that, to his knowledge, the city had been meeting with the Ocampos to find a resolution for both the legal operation of their business and to find a spot for Haven Care Solutions’ current residents. 

Councilmember Sean Mill also told The Record that he heard city staff had been working with Haven Care Solutions to find a resolution.

“From what I gathered in talking with those folks, they’re doing good work, but again, everybody has to operate within the law and the rules,” Mill said. “Hopefully we’re able to help them find a new location where they can legally operate.” 

Ocampo said that she was unaware at the time that she needed to apply for permits to occupy the space. However, she was shocked to see her business receive “so much backlash” from the city for opening a facility that was trying to help people experiencing homelessness.

At the January 27 city council meeting, Ocampo said during public comment that she had received an email from Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) stating that it was working with the city and asked for Haven Care Solutions to transfer individuals out of her facility. She said that it felt like she was being retaliated against after speaking about her business at a committee meeting the previous day.

“[IEHP] is aware of the matter between the city of Riverside and Haven Care Solutions,” an IEHP spokesperson said in a statement to The Record. “Our highest priority is the health and safety of our members and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

Both Ocampo and her husband said they felt the city had not been effectively working with them to find a short-term solution, at least not one that was in their residents’ best interests. 

“Allow them to just finish their course of treatment,” Ocampo said. “Allow us to finish that plan, rather than discharging them to another place where we just don’t know if they’re going to fall back into the system.”

As of Friday, Ocampo said she was unsure of the timeline for transferring residents out of the facility, though she noted that Haven Care Solutions was not going to go out of business.

Trout said she was aware of the cease and desist letter to Haven Care Solutions, and the uncertainty surrounding her ability to stay. 

“I try not to overly think about it, but I do try to think of different ways that we can help,” Trout said. “What they’re doing is something that is desperately needed in the community.”