Editor’s Picks: REITs Unload Skilled Nursing, Senior Living Workforce Crisis

This week, Senior Housing News readers learned how to help hire and retain a strong workforce and why real estate investment trusts (REITs) are cutting back on skilled nursing. Readers also learned how the legal battle of one of the nation’s largest nonprofit senior housing providers could change the status quo when it comes to labor laws.

Here in the newsroom, we are a little horrified over the true story of the nurses from the latest season of American Horror Story: Roanoke. Here come the goosebumps!

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Under Pressure, REITs Back Off Skilled Nursing— The largest senior housing REITs are feeling the burn of recent payment reforms, especially when it comes to skilled nursing properties. Skilled nursing occupancy rates have hit a 5-year low and some REITs are reducing their skilled nursing portfolios using various methods because of the challenges.

Senior Living Providers Take Action to Prevent Workforce Crisis— Whether it’s executive directors or frontline workers, hiring and retaining a strong workforce in senior housing companies continues to be a challenge. But some of the largest providers in the nation are using more aggressive methods to ensure their workers are happy and stay around for the long haul. Leaders of providers like Belmont Village, Leisure Care and Silverado Living shared their strategies at the 2016 National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) Fall Conference.

Will ABHOW’s Brewing Legal Battle Redefine Labor Law?— A legal battle has been heating up ever since workers at American Baptist Home of the West’s (ABHOW) Piedmont Gardens community went on strike. The workers said they were fired after the breakdown of contract negotiations. The case set off proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and now has the potential to redefine labor laws. The case is still making its way through the court system.

Weekend Reads

Leading Cause of Injury, Death in Older Americans is On The Rise— Falling injuries and deaths are on the rise for older Americans, according to a recent report by CBS News. In 2014, older Americans fell 29 million times and about 2.8 million cases were treated for fall-related issues in emergency departments, according to the report.

The Terrifying True Story of the Nurses From American Horror Story— If you’re a fan of the extra creepy new season of American Horror Story: Roanoke, or even if you’re not, the story is just outright scary. This season of AHS involves a house which used to be an assisted living community. There were two sisters who there as nurses and brutally killed five patients. The sisters vanished when police were investigating and now haunt the house, possibly looking for their next victim. What’s even more shocking is that the two nurses in the story were based off of two real women who worked in a nursing home in Walker, Michigan, from 1985 to 1988 and were charged with the murder of two patients. Yikes!

Dutch Housing Model Lets Students Stay at Senior Living Home For Free— Some students in the Netherlands can now live in a community for seniors for free while they attend school. The only catch is that they have to spend 30 hours a month being a good neighbor. One 22-year-old student speaks in the Ted Talk below about how the experience of intergenerational learning has reshaped his whole outlook on life.

Written by Alana Stramowski