Residents of Universal Health Care of North Raleigh and their families are frustrated by the state's decision not to put in place a temporary, outside manager to run the nursing home while problems are addressed.

Residents are upset that they have to leave because they say there's a 1993 state law designed to keep residents from having to move in situations such as this one.

"This sounds like exactly the kind of circumstance we had in mind," said U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, one of the bill's sponsors. "This provided an intermediate step that allowed homes that could be turned around to be turned around."

Friends of Residents in Long-term Care, based in Raleigh, wrote Gov. Mike Easley a letter last month asking why the law appears never to have been used.

Jeff Horton, who runs the division that decided to stop Universal's Medicaid money, responded to the group on behalf of Easley.

Horton said appointment of a temporary manager would have been meaningless in this situation. Universal still would have remained ineligible for federal funds, meaning residents would have to find new homes anyway -- unless the nursing home decided to let them stay for free, Horton said.