KEY WEST -- Outside her home, Audrey Murphy sat next to her walker, her 75-year-old eyes staring forlornly as she slowly puffed on a cigarette and worried.

''They're kicking us out,'' she said. ``I don't know where I'm going to go. Let them put me out on the street and I'll go up and down with a tin cup.''

Murphy's home is the Key West Convalescent Center, where she's one of 78 dependent residents, some in their last months of life, who are being uprooted with the imminent Dec. 11 closure of the Lower Keys' only nursing home.

The center has lost its government funding. On Nov. 7, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified the Key West Convalescent Center that its provider number was being revoked due to nearly four years of continuous poor surveys for patient care, safety and administration.

''It seems very drastic to me,'' said Kim Bassett, chief executive officer of Fishermen's Hospital in Marathon.

In the past five years, according to state records, only one other Florida nursing home, in Port Charlotte, was forced to close after losing its funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

''We are not perfect, but any deficiencies we've had in the past, we've tried to correct,'' said Scott Becht, chief operating officer of Tennessee-based MidCare Inc., which owns the 24-year-old Key West nursing home. ``On this survey, we disagree with the allegations of abuse.''

Steve Torrence, who 15 years ago served on a community board that dealt with the center, said he does not think there is abuse, but said the owners have failed for years to upgrade or fix dilapidated equipment, beds and wheelchairs.

''The fault of all this is the nursing home owners,'' said Torrence, whose mother-in-law lived at the center. ``They have done little until recently to put money back into the nursing home. Too little, too late. They failed the residents.''

Some residents, family members and staff members hold out hope that a new owner will come to the rescue.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, whose district includes the Keys, wrote a letter to Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, requesting a 90-day extension of the funding cutoff date to allow a new owner to take over the facility.

''I'm in favor of strong oversight,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. ``I'm not condoning lack of quality care in Monroe County or anywhere else. But closing this place aggravates the hardships on the people who live there and their families. I hear so much pain and agony in their calls.''

Ros-Lehtinen said Signature Healthcare is a possibility to take over operation of the Key West center, whose building and land is owned by the Lower Keys Hospital District.

Erica Staley, communications manager for the Palm Beach Gardens-based company that owns 65 nursing homes in seven states, confirmed that the company is discussing the possibility. ''But nothing has been determined,'' she said.

The federal agency ended funding to the Key West Convalescent Center based on surveys conducted by the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

During the latest survey, a nine-person team from the state spent nearly a week at the 120-bed Key West center, producing a 179-page report that cited instances of abuse and several safety and administrative violations. Residents were said to be in ``immediate jeopardy.''

''There is zero tolerance for abuse,'' said Barbara Alford, a field officer manager for the state agency who was part of the survey team.

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