Seattle Times carrying a Jan 22, 2025 item -
Getting a contract with a retirement home can last a remaining lifetime.
Sometimes, yours. Sometimes the life of the retirement home before bankruptcy -
Data tracking bankruptcies and closures in senior housing are scant. Dee Pekruhn, who directs life plan community policy at LeadingAge, said there had been “very, very few examples of actual bankruptcies,” though there were recent close calls.
But Lori Smetanka, the executive director of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, said that state and local long-term care ombudsmen were increasingly reporting “problems with facilities that are financially troubled.”
Recent crises include the closure of Unisen Senior Living, a CCRC in Tampa, Florida. After it filed for bankruptcy for the second time last spring, more than 100 residents had to move out.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2023, state officials stepped in to oversee a long-established CCRC called Aldersgate, which had floundered financially for years. The state approved a “corrective action plan,” and Aldersgate avoided bankruptcy. But it remains months behind on refund payments, and state supervision continues.
In Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a CCRC called Casey’s Pond entered court-ordered receivership last summer. Since sold to a nonprofit health care system, it will continue operations — but only after two municipalities, a local foundation and hundreds of community members raised $30 million to rescue it.
Other kinds of senior housing can shut down, too. About 1,550 nursing homes closed between 2015 and mid-2024, according to the American Health Care Association.
But when CCRCs fail, residents and families face not only the physical and psychological ordeal of relocating, but also the possible loss of their life savings.
In bankruptcy, residents entitled to refunds “are at the very bottom of the list” among creditors seeking payment, said Nathalie Martin, a University of New Mexico law professor who has written about insolvent CCRCs.
Secured lenders with collateral have the first crack at collecting what they’re owed, followed by lawyers, accountants and employees.
Because the people who live in a CCRC that has promised refunds are unsecured lenders, “residents are in a very vulnerable position, and they don’t know it,” Martin said. Without refunds, they may be unable to afford to pay for care elsewhere if forced to move.
Traps for the unwary exist because somebody besides the unwary gets a benefit.
Note the two links which truly are related. One, lists community services which to an extent can help Washington State residents, with similar services likely offered in other states. The other just shakes more fear at readers. Growing old is not understood by too many young, who may have boomer dislike without full knowledge. The young will suffer what has happened, while the old had to live through its happening, frustrations and disdain included. It's us and them. They prosper, we expect fairness. Trump voting can be explained on those grounds.
Expectations often enough go unmet.