Senior Housing News will be out of the office this Thursday and Friday, but we’ll return to our regular posting schedule on Monday, Dec. 28. In the meantime, SHN would like to wish our readers a safe and enjoyable Christmas.

For now, here are a few of the recent happenings in the senior housing sector.

Five Star Rejects Senior Star Affiliate’s Portfolio Bid—The Five Star Quality Care Board of Directors officially responded to a public call for the sale of Five Star’s owned assets to Gemini Properties, an affiliate of senior living owner and operator Senior Star, saying Five Star’s owned assets are not for sale.

CEO Fresh Take: Embracing Seniors’ Aging-in-Place Dreams—Lutheran Homes Society CEO Rick Marshall knows most seniors want to age in place, but he doesn’t let that scare him. Instead, Marshall, who took the helm at the Toledo, Ohio-based senior housing provider in February, is working to make sure his residents can stay wherever they want to, longer—while also keeping the organization’s bottom line healthy.

For Senior Living Non-Profits, Not All Boards Are Equal—Not-for-profit senior living communities differ when it comes to board activities, according to Ziegler’s December CFO Hotline poll. The survey found that 62% of multi-site organizations maintain a corporate board only. Almost four in 10 boards said they met on a quarterly basis, and multi-site organizations were much more likely to hold quarterly meetings than single-site organizations.

Recommended Holiday Reading

When Mom Has Alzheimer’s, A Stranger Comes For Christmas—NPR tells the story of Helen Downs, an 86-year-old with Alzheimer’s, and the difficulties of celebrating holidays with relatives who have lost their memory. “For me the hard part is that my mother-in-law is still with us physically, but mentally she’s not there,” Helen’s daughter-in-law, Mary, tells NPR. “It’s almost like having somebody that’s a stranger at Christmas.”

Hillary Clinton Proposes Doubling Spending on Alzheimer’s Research—On Dec. 22, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proposed a $2 billion-a-year investment in Alzheimer’s research. “We owe it to the millions of families who stay up at night worrying about their loved ones afflicted by this terrible disease and facing the hard reality of the long goodbye to make research investments that will prevent, effectively treat and make a cure possible by 2025,” Clinton said in a statement.

Written by Mary Kate Nelson