Former football and rugby player Michael Zafris, in a wheelchair and living at the Windsor Place personal care home after a stroke, has a hard time fathoming why state officials are aiming to put the Ross facility out of business.

The 56-year-old lived previously in another residence where he said the staff tried its best to ignore his large 6-foot-5 frame. His experience at Windsor Place has been different, starting with the whirlpool bath he was offered upon arrival last year.

"This place, come hell or high water, they get you out of bed," Mr. Zafris said while watching the Olympics on television with a dozen other residents one recent morning. "I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but I know people treat me with decency and respect. I never had anyone abuse me."

Such views are echoed in letters from at least two dozen residents and staff of the 119-bed home, or their family members, who have written to state officials and the news media trying to save it from shutdown.

The state Department of Public Welfare's assessment of the home is far different. Inspectors have cited Windsor Place for multiple recent incidents in which residents were hospitalized after alleged neglect or abuse. Officials contend there is a sufficient pattern of risk that residents would be better off relocated -- even those who defend the 10-year-old facility, with its spacious rooms and family management.

"We're thankful that their problems have not affected all of the residents, but it's a dangerous and fatal situation to be in, waiting and wondering which resident could potentially be next," said welfare department spokeswoman Stacey Witalec. "We have to act the way we do to ensure another family member doesn't have to endure the grief or trauma other families have been through."

An appeals hearing tomorrow will start a process that could run through the fall in which owner and administrator Lynn Harvey, who employs four siblings at Windsor Place and at a smaller personal care home in Richland, is contesting the state's charges.

It is one of three personal care homes in Allegheny County that the welfare department is trying to shut down for quality-of-care issues. Representatives of the others, Squirrel Hill Manor and the Alice Davis Personal Care Home in Braddock, declined to discuss their cases.

Windsor Place also is one of the 24 personal care homes -- out of 158 facilities -- in the county operating on provisional licenses, meaning the state found sufficient concern to put them on a more frequent inspection schedule and call public attention to their problems. Facilities must post their licenses, and the welfare department has begun making inspection reports available on the "personal care home directory" page of its Web site, www.dpw.state.pa.us.

By comparison, only one of 65 nursing homes in the county is on a provisional license from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Some personal care home operators contend the welfare department has gone too far to enforce 3-year-old regulations intended to update the industry, which serves as a transitional step for people unable to care for themselves at home but not frail enough to require a nursing home.

Several owners on provisional licenses say too many of the new regulations relate to paperwork, including written assessments of residents and documentation from fire safety experts. They don't like being cited for issues like failure to have tweezers in their first-aid kits or keeping household cleaners in unlocked cabinets.

"It's almost like they're picking you to shreds for no reason," said Barbara Marcieski, operator of 38-bed Quiet Ridge Manor in McKeesport, under a provisional license that she says is its first in 20 years. "To me, it's an insult to get a provisional license. It used to be they were just for bad homes. Now I don't know."

Ms. Witalec maintained, however, that while small violations of regulations will be noted, only more serious ones jeopardizing health and safety of residents will result in provisional licenses or stronger action like Windsor Place is facing.

In one home on two consecutive provisional licenses, Arden Courts of Jefferson Hills, a staff member allegedly committed at least eight acts of "inappropriate sexual mistreatment" early this year before being fired. Most homes' violations, however, involve the threat of harm to residents, including failure to conduct proper fire drills, rather than actual injury.

Last year, the department revoked or refused to renew licenses of 35 homes statewide, in addition to making 14 emergency relocations. A total of 129 homes closed voluntarily or by state order. Pennsylvania was down to 1,492 homes by the end of 2007, compared with 1,830 in 2000, and others have shut down this year -- far more than the number of newcomers entering the business.

Ms. Witalec said the severity of state action is determined both by the nature of a home's problems and the extent to which there are repeat offenses.

"If there's a way for us to work with the facility to fix whatever problem, so we don't have to remove people, then we will do that," she said. "But if it's a systemic problem, we have to get residents out."

In Windsor Place's case, the state initially sought to put it out of business in January, primarily for fire safety issues. Welfare officials dropped that attempt after corrections were made, but renewed it in July after issuing citations for three serious incidents, in addition to numerous smaller infractions:

• In January, a resident died from a head injury after falling out of bed and the home failed to report the incident properly, according to the state's report.

• Neglect was cited in a March case in which hospital officials identified signs of starvation and dehydration in a resident who was transferred there. The resident survived, and is at another facility.

• In May, a resident fractured her hip when she allegedly was knocked to the floor in the shower by a staff member, in a case that is under investigation by Ross police. The department contended Windsor Place failed to report the incident properly.

A relative of the man who fell out of bed and died said he received good care and the family retained a positive impression of Windsor Place, but the family of the resident knocked down in the shower has hired a lawyer to pursue civil action.

Matt Harvey, who works as an administrator along with his sister, said Windsor Place disputes many of the welfare department's criticisms of how it handled the incidents. He said it is a "pro-active" facility with staffing and training beyond state requirements, in a building designed a decade ago to go beyond state specifications for comfort.

The facility has records and witnesses that will show it was not neglectful in any of the cases, Mr. Harvey said, but he acknowledged it can end up with an unsuitable employee such as the one accused of knocking down a frail woman. That care aide has been fired, he said.

"We met with our residents to see if they had anything [as other abuse] to report," Mr. Harvey said. "We sent letters to every family asking about awareness of issues, and said if they had future suspicions, we need to know. There was not one call that came in."

The Harveys have questioned if they are being targeted by welfare officials angry with them for leading an unsuccessful lawsuit several years ago that tried to block the new regulations. Matt Harvey was president for many years of the Northern Area Personal Care Home Administrators Association, which filed the lawsuit, and Lynn Harvey was a co-founder of the group.

Other operators in the field vouch for the Harveys, who have provided training programs for staff of other facilities, and believe vindictiveness against them is a possibility.

"I think they're on a witch hunt to close them down because of past activities," said Charles Shade, who owns two personal care homes in Richland that have received provisional licenses. "I only know them as reputable people who want to serve these elderly adults."

Mary Ann Fischer, a physical therapist for Celtic Health Care who visits Windsor Place and similar facilities regularly, said while assisting one elderly resident there that it seems to be one of the best settings she goes into.

"The difference you see here is it's family run, so you see more love and caring going into it," Ms. Fischer said.

Maria Kayser, the 88-year-old woman whose bad knees the therapist was stretching, said if she has to leave Windsor Place, "it will be a disaster."

"With 90 percent of these employees, there is no better, but wherever you go, you're going to get a couple of misfits," said Charles Kappes, 70, a man with cerebral palsy who was watching stock reports on a flat-screen television in his room.

Ms. Witalec said it is "baffling" that the department would be accused of retaliating against the Harveys for their activism, because it has repeatedly worked with NAPCHAA and similar industry groups in discussing new regulations.

"It couldn't be further from the truth," she said, noting that Windsor Place's problems stem from a series of serious incidents involving residents, rather than one isolated case.

"We can't continue to allow people to live in a facility where it appears as if we are just waiting for the next incident to take place," she said.