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The state and a troubled Greensboro adult-care home have reached a settlement that effectively closes the facility by Jan. 31.

In the settlement, approved Jan. 17 by the director of the state Division of Health Service Regulation and released today, Friendship Care Assisted Living must find new homes for its residents by the end of the month. The Guilford County Department of Social Services is to help find new homes for the residents. Twenty-two people lived in the home when relocations began on Tuesday, department assistant director Steve Hayes said, and six remained earlier this afternoon.

"It is never a good thing to lose a facility," Hayes said. "Our goal is for all facilities to be in compliance, but our first obligation is to make sure the residents are safe."

The home, located on Old Battleground Road, had a history of violations of state law and regulations. In August, state inspectors recommended that it be closed after residents failed to receive prescribed medication. A $20,000 fine against the facility, the maximum, was upheld Jan. 10 by the division's Penalty Review Committee.

The home had faced a hearing on Monday to determine whether a recommended revocation of its license would be upheld.

The agreement also calls for a $5,000 fine against the facility.

Home owner Avery Green did not return a phone message left for him at Friendship Care today. His attorney, Amiel Rossabi, said Green has not decided whether to sell Friendship Care.

Rossabi said that he and Green had sought mediation with the state because they believed that although Green had not yet had a chance to justify his actions, the state's mind was made up.

"As a result, Mr. Green had made the decision that he was not going to continue doing business with the adult care licensure section," Rossabi said.

This afternoon, residents and their families were packing. Among them was Eura Lee Waddell, whose sister, Elmar Grace Vines, had lived at the home for more than five years before being moved Wednesday to a different home.

Before a reporter and photographers were asked to leave the property, Waddell said she had complained to the state about Friendship Care on several occasions. She said the home had sent medical bills to her although she was not responsible for her sister's expenses.

Also, "the bathrooms were terrible," she said. "I reported that three or four times."

She also said the home failed to have someone on staff who could communicate with her sister, who has been deaf and mute since birth.

Most recently, she said, her sister had appeared to be trying to communicate that she was having a medical problem with her leg. The home took her to an urgent-care facility, Waddell said, which in turn referred Vines to a hospital emergency room.

"I never did find out what was wrong with her leg," Waddell said. "(An employee) gave me an answer, but I couldn't understand what she was talking about."

Kim Ketchum, chairman of a group of volunteers appointed by the county commissioners to visit assisted-care homes quarterly, had complained about the condition of the facilities after previous visits. He said today the settlement was appropriate.

"I guess the system has done what it needed to do," Ketchum said. "Hopefully we'll get someone in to run it who will respect the residents the way they needed to be respected."