Charter Senior Living went on the offense last year — and that momentum is still propelling the company forward into 2022.
The Naperville, Illinois-based company has added about 10% in average same-store occupancy between March and September as it gets a handle on issues including staffing and wages, fraying supply lines and the rising cost of some goods and services. But Bennema thinks that more stable times are within reach as the pandemic hopefully recedes.
“I think 2022 is going to be a year where we’re really going to zero in on our acquisitions and make those as strong as possible,” Bennema told Senior Housing News during his recent appearance on SHN+ TALKS. “[And] make sure we’re providing excellent care and taking great care of our employees.”
Underscoring that belief is a commitment to maintaining the company’s culture as it grows beyond the 40 community mark with partners including Diversified Healthcare Trust (Nasdaq: DHC) and through a selective acquisition strategy. In that regard, Bennema believes that there are some good opportunities to grow on that horizon.
“There are a lot of attractive acquisitions that I would say are going to start hitting the market probably by the first three to six months of 2022,” Bennema said.
We are pleased to share the recording and this transcript of the SHN+ TALKS conversation with SHN+ members. Read on to learn about:
— How Bennema’s time working as a senior living caregiver informs his company’s staffing strategy
— Charter’s strategy on setting rate increases amid a competitive environment full of discounts and concessions
— Why Charter is pursuing an ownership-focused strategy of growth through acquisitions and creative partnerships
The following has been edited for clarity.
[00:02:00] Tim Regan: I remember talking with Charter Senior Living’s COO, Jayne Sallerson, last year. She had said that Charter was working hard, going from playing defense to playing offense as it related to things like move-ins, leads, and occupancy. Now that it’s about a year later, I’m curious to know how all that went, and also how you have worked to stay on the offense in the past year or so.
[00:02:04] Keven Bennema: Certainly for … anyone in this industry, the last year, I think, it’s been nothing short of a roller coaster ride. At the beginning of the year is when we started all feeling, I would say, the positive impacts of really getting systems and processes and protocols in place to really protect not only our residents, but to protect our employees. Obviously, there have been a number of enhancements with vaccination rates.
Procedurally, I think some things have fallen into place. Number one, we don’t have any corporate presence or corporate infrastructure. We essentially are very decentralized, and we’ve been able to deploy many of our 32 senior team members to communities to help pitch in where we can. I think that as everybody [viewing] knows, staffing has been extraordinary. It’s been something that none of us probably anticipated in any way, shape, or form, but it’s a reality right now.
Ultimately, I think that we continue to look at ways to make employees feel appreciated, boiling that down to how we orient our employees. Another reality is that wages across the country have needed to be addressed. I think we’ve reacted to that in a positive way. Certainly, we still have some more work to do there, but much of the playing offense comes down to ensuring the fundamentals and the basics are in place at your community, like having enough staff to staff for that particular shift for that day.
I think you also have to celebrate your successes. At the end of the day, we’re doing a lot of great things for people, and we can’t lose sight of that because our industry is not for everybody. I really think that we’ve done a good job of celebrating successes, acknowledging teams, and publicly thanking teams. We’re very active on Facebook. Again, I just think you’ve got to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with your employees, and with your residents and families, especially right now.
[00:05:49] Tim: I remember in July, Charter took over some former Five Star Senior Living communities in a management agreement with Diversified Healthcare Trust (Nasdaq: DHC). I’m curious, when you came into those communities, what state were they in? What changes have you brought to those communities and how is all that going?
[00:06:18] Keven: We were approached by Diversified Healthcare Trust several months ago, and we were asked about our interest in taking on some management contracts that would ultimately lead to some type of a potential ownership situation down the road, which we were all for. We knew some of the folks at DHT over the years, and that was really important to us, to make sure that we felt that we had a good collaborative relationship with the senior executives of that company.
We wound up identifying a core group of communities from August 1 through October 1 that all fit nicely geographically within what I’ll call our regional footprint. The last thing we wanted to do was pick up communities that were west of the Mississippi. We’re primarily Midwest, Southeast, we now have a strong presence in the Ohio Valley, Connecticut, Ohio, Tennessee, and up into Baltimore.
Those transitions, I think, were pretty consistent with other transitions we’ve done. The pressures of when communities know that they’re being sold sometimes take on a little bit of a life of their own. A lot of it is just coming in, sharing the love, making sure they know that, ‘Hey, we’re at Charter, we’ve been on both sides of the coin.’ You want to come in and be very complimentary of the opportunity. Five Star is a great company, we want to enhance the things that they’ve done, and really try to take things to a different level with employee engagement, and I’ll also say facilities management.
One of the things is that many of these communities are 20-plus years old. They’re older but goodies, as they say. In the last 90 days, we’ve already started implementing renovation plans, wage increases, which I think has been tremendously helpful. Then just initially, as we transition into any community, we have extensive conversations with families and residents, so they know who we are. I think you just got to get ahead of that because people are, especially now, the last thing folks need is more change. You really have to have confidence that you’re bringing some positive changes to the community.
[00:09:04] Tim: As you are doing these kind of arrangements, do you see any common themes, or pitfalls, or even any advice that you would have for anyone in our audience doing something similar?
[00:09:29] Keven: Number one, you really have to come in in a way to calm things down, genuinely and authentically. There are definitely going to be situations where you’re evaluating to make sure that you have the right attitudes, the right skill sets, and many times people don’t take enough time to really evaluate that. Those are lessons learned over acquisitions that I’ve done in the past. Staffing is at a premium, and it’s difficult to hire and find good employees. You really have to take the time to train and retrain before you identify whether you have to make a change, certainly, in a leadership role.
As we’ve approached these transitions, we’ve basically hired every employee from each of these communities. That was our position. Nobody was not going to have a job. Then, in this process, we wanted to evaluate skill sets and where people were with their wages versus years of experience. That was key. If you don’t calm that down right away, believe me, all that will do is it’ll spread negativity that you do not want to deal with. It’ll go through your families, your residents.
On the flip side, it’s also about talking to families and residents about the top few things we’re going to focus on. You will definitely hear the concerns, and we will address the concerns. If we can fix something immediately, we will. We don’t want to avoid any answers.
I think it’s easy to avoid renovation questions, but the good news is the reassurance of working with a partner that has told us that, ‘We want to know, strategically, what we need to do to make communities have a better first impression for everybody’s benefit.’ Not just for the benefit of the actual physical plant, but that’s another positive step forward.
I think last is really getting our name out in each of the local markets, and meeting with some of the movers and shakers. Many of the communities we picked up, they’re not your typical urban market, many of these are more secondary markets. You got a lot of strong cultures and values, which we love, but it’s really getting out to … the city council, the local area agency on aging, the rotary clubs, and we’ve made a lot of inroads to get to know folks, and we’ve learned that there’s a lot of these various movers and shakers that have families that live in these communities. We’ve also done some outreach there.
You can’t just all show up, August 1, and then not show back up until next August. It doesn’t work like that.
[00:12:51] Tim: You mentioned earlier that DHT picked up the phone and called you. Did you do something special to stand out to companies that were looking for those opportunities?
[00:13:19] Keven: Senior living is certainly a large industry, but it’s certainly a small industry, too.
I’ve had a lot of great experiences at past employers in the industry. I started out years ago as a caregiver. I didn’t do that for a day or a week, I did that for about two years. The culture of Charter is we do not have a corporate infrastructure, we don’t have a corporate office. Our senior team, we have 32 senior team members and they all are based out of their homes.
They travel three weeks out of the month. Today, I think we have approximately 40 communities. I think what companies like DHT saw was our culture, our visibility. I just got back from about an eight-week trip of visiting communities, my wife and I, and really spending time in communities. I think they wanted just a different level of attention, and our goal is to provide that attention. We plan on being very visible in these communities, as we do at our other Charter communities. I’m proud to say that we have other partners that we have really strong relationships with, and we’ve had improved performance in many of those communities.
I think that’s really what it was. It was just more of a different style. They made other calls to other operators, and we just felt fortunate that we were one of the calls that they made.
[00:15:14] Tim: You had mentioned, a moment ago, how all of your communities lie east of the Mississippi, or just over that line. Why focus on that half of the country, and what do you think are the strengths of being your current size?
[00:15:48] Keven: There’s an intrigue about growing. Those of us who’ve been in the industry a long time know that just because you’re larger, that doesn’t mean you’re better. Many times when you get to a certain point, you’re spending more time trying to undo the dysfunction in your leadership teams.
Employees are smart. They’re going to go where they feel like they’re being treated well, they have an opportunity to contribute, they’re part of the solution. Many of these folks are willing to sacrifice salary, because they want to be happier, or have a seat at the table. I think that’s what most of our senior team has at Charter. The way our regions are structured, our teams can be visible and accessible to those communities within an hour-long flight or within a couple of hours-long drive.
We’ve been strategic in choosing opportunities by how close, and the proximity of getting resources to those communities. I think we have two communities that are actually west of the Mississippi, but they’re literally on the Mississippi or close to it. As we looked for opportunities out west, we just didn’t really see anything that made a lot of sense for us. We don’t want to get too ahead of our skis. There’s plenty going on in the East Coast.
What’s exciting is the referral business we’re getting is from existing partners, and that’s been a big compliment. When you’re really working well with your partners, and they know how committed you are to the success of their assets, those geographies really help and the visibility really helps.
[00:19:16] Tim: Do you think there’s a right size for a senior living provider?
[00:19:35] Keven: If you have a handle on culture, resident engagement and employee engagement, and you’re providing good care at a community, I think you can grow as large as you want. It’s really about making sure that your company has standards. Culture is huge. You can’t have an us versus them system. You can’t have a leadership team or an executive team that is not visible in communities.
At Charter, titles are important, don’t get me wrong. But really, it’s more about the team at Charter than it is about titles. Ninety percent of the decision making at Charter Senior Living is between the executive director and the regional director of operations. That other 10% is more about major decisions related to making an improvement at the community, or replacing equipment, or maybe some other significant budget changes that need to be made. That, I think, is key. When you get a little too focused on what I’ll call the ‘top-down’ mentality, then I really think that it’s just a matter of time before you just get your own way.
Companies that can really pull off the culture side of things can grow. I don’t necessarily want to say there’s no limit, because on the same token, you better darn well have some very good people on your team that are eating and breathing the culture. Most importantly, those people need to know you have their back because people are going to make mistakes. But, we’re going to fall forward with those mistakes.
[00:21:39] Tim: My colleague and editor Tim Mullaney wrote a story recently about the emergence of all of these super-regional senior living players. Could you see Charter as one of these super regionals one day?
[00:22:13] Keven: I would say that it’s unlikely. Charter has been in existence for five and a half years. Believe me, we’ve learned a lot. If we wanted to be larger, we could easily be larger, but that’s not the goal.
I’ve worked for larger companies. First of all, it’s a lot of work. Not that what we’re doing isn’t a lot of work, but I think our goals, our vision, our three- to five-year strategy — right now we are really not looking to grow that much more. We are now having the opportunity to do some more developments that have been slowed down because of the situation we had with Covid. Now we’re kicking some of those in gear with some really strong partners.
That [question], ‘what number?’ — I get asked all the time. Right now, playing around that 50 community space, we like that. I think 2022 is going to be a year where we’re really going to zero in on our acquisitions and make those as strong as possible, make sure we’re providing excellent care and taking great care of our employees. That’s a priority for us. As we see growth opportunities, we’ll take a look at those.
[00:24:27] Tim: It seems like if you’re a senior living provider, you need to walk a fine line right now. On the one hand, you have to offer competitive rates. On the other hand, we all know that if you lean too much in that direction, you could end up with a community that’s full but is pulling in far less revenue than you would want. How are you thinking about maintaining rates?
[00:25:17] Keven: It’s a topic we wrestle with, and I know a lot of other operators are wrestling with it, especially now. We are full bore, as they say, in budgeting for next year. You have to be very strategic in these times. Number one, I think on average, we’ve seen anywhere from 10% to 30% wage increases in some communities with some positions, and operators are feeling that everywhere.
It’s not uncommon that in some markets, caregivers’ wages have gone up $2 and $3 an hour. Obviously, that pushes other areas [such as] ancillary support, dining, housekeeping, maintenance. As we evaluate our wages going into 2022, there’s been tremendous expense increases as they relate to this pandemic — expenses that we didn’t get reimbursed for, our owners didn’t get reimbursed for.
There was some stimulus that was received, but again, that helps for that amount of time. It takes a lot to really operate and support these communities. We’re critically looking at where our rates are in every market. I can tell you that we are probably going to be giving higher-than-normal rate increases as a result of not just food, not just wages in the pandemic, but also pressure on utilities. We have inflation that is looming, and then we’re also very cognizant that Medicare has announced that they are going to be doing a cost of living adjustment in about the 6% range. We’re also trying to be sensitive to them because that’s pretty extraordinary.
I think the costs are going to go up and we have to do our best to maintain them, justify them and be very careful. In communities that, let’s say, that we’re more occupancy challenged, maybe those are communities where we back off of that strategy a little bit, and offer maybe some more incentives. Many of the communities we recently acquired are in the 50%, 60% occupancy, and you’re not just going to walk in those communities and just increase rates 10%, 15%.
You’ve got to look at it by each community. You can have a global strategy, but you have to see where each community fits into that strategy, so people feel like they’re still being listened to, and they’re getting good value.
[00:29:10] Tim: When you do have to raise rates at a community, I assume that’s never an easy discussion. Can you plainly lay it out to residents and their families?
[00:29:29] Keven: It’s always hard to ask. In the next three to four days, our rent increase letters start to go out. We try to communicate in writing why we’re doing what we’re doing. I can tell you from the things that I’m hearing about what other operators are doing, we’re probably less as far as the rent increases we’re looking to pass along. If somebody moved in on a very significant deal during what I’ll call during the Covid times, we have to really look at that and say, is that fair for not only existing residents and that resident, but for new residents?
We can get more granular with certain communities, but really that’s primarily the story. The other reality is people know. They see what’s going on but the key is they have to still see the value that they’re getting. That’s really what we try to focus on.
[00:31:05] Tim: With Covid-19, I think it’s no secret that margins are compressed across the industry. What do you think is a reasonable margin in 2021? I’m assuming that number is probably lower than what you might have said two or three years ago, but do you think the industry is going to stay there and this will just be the baseline for margins in the years ahead?
[00:32:00] Keven: It’s a great question. Margins are interesting because you cannot compare a community that’s in a B market — maybe more of a rural market, a secondary market — to an A market with an A product because you could have a community in a secondary market that’s 92% occupied that is running, I’ll say, mid-20s margin. That same size community in what I’ll call more of a class A market could probably be running at 35% or higher. If you’re able to command more rent, that to me is your margin. What we’re seeing even in more rural markets is we’re starting to pay wages that are closer to these class A markets. That’s another margin compression factor.
[00:33:35] Tim: I want to ask you our first audience question. What are some key criteria that you look for in deciding to go forward on a new development versus expending resources on an acquisition?
[00:34:00] Keven: With respect to new development, the developments we’re doing are with partners that we’ve really gotten to know well and ones where we have strong alignment. Ultimately, Charter is interested in a path toward ownership with everything we’re doing. We still have a fair amount or a large amount of third-party agreements, but we are looking for more of an ownership position in everything that is under the Charter umbrella. If the stars align on the development side, and it makes more sense for us to get to that goal, we’re going to focus on the development.
When it comes to an acquisition, there are a lot of attractive acquisitions that I would say are going to start hitting the market probably by the first three to six months of 2022. I think there’s going to be a fair amount of opportunities out there, even more than now. I know this has been a historic year for some of the brokers out there. Acquisitions are really simply based on your basis. What can you get an acquisition for per door, per unit, whatever your criteria is? Certainly the lower that number, the better. We have some pretty sophisticated people on our team that grind through those acquisition opportunities along with potential partners.
Assuming the financials and the three to five-year horizon look very promising, an acquisition could be a far better decision than development because development, you still have a tremendous amount of risk on construction, and dare I say other unnatural causes that could happen. With acquisitions, largely, it’s really making sure you freshen the community up, make sure you’re reinvesting, making sure you have the right management team. You can turn around an acquisition far quicker than even filling up a community. There’s a number of different factors, but I think those are some keys.
[00:36:37] Tim: We have another audience question here I want to ask you. Could you talk about your capital expenditure and how it compares with pre-Covid levels? Then there’s a tack-on here. What inflationary pressure are you seeing there and any delays due to supply chain or labor issues?
[00:36:55] Keven: A great question. Regarding our capital expenditures, compared to pre-Covid, I would say that our Covid-related expenditure has probably increased our per-unit expenditures anywhere from $2,500 to $7,500 a unit. That’s a ballpark estimate that has a lot to do with more cleaning-related, sanitizing-related, filter-related types of capital. I will also throw in HVAC system maintenance, repair, modification. On the inflationary side, we’re seeing it. We’re seeing inflation in our food. We’re seeing it in our raw food spend. We’re starting to feel it. We’re feeling it on the wage side.
I honestly don’t think we’re going to really feel the inflationary impact until late first quarter, early second quarter. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think I’m not too far off. I can tell you this, with supply chains, we’re definitely impacted. We have delays on some things as simple as appliances. Model rooms that have some appliance needs, we’ve had to go out and just buy floor models because it’s going to take another three weeks before we get particular appliances. We have some delays, not necessarily carpeting, but on our flooring, but granite courts, those kinds of things.
One of the areas that we have to stay very diligent on is supply chain issues related to technology and resident E-call systems, pager systems. We are definitely seeing lead times of three months on ordering.
[00:39:36] Tim: I’m glad that you mentioned the supply chain because we have another audience question: Are you experiencing supply chain pressure in getting various products? You just said yes, so that answers that. Are you ordering anything in bulk now to save down the road when you might not be able to get it? Or working with any new suppliers?
[00:40:10] Keven: All of us are facing it, not just in this industry, but other industries. Depending on what you’re ordering, you need to, at a minimum, extend your lead time by 30 days, at least. I’d say it’s probably between 30 and 60 days. We’re told that supply chains nationally are going to get back on track by the holidays, maybe. The food purveyors, I think it’s been challenging. The large food purveyors out there, they feel those supply chain issues, and not only that, many of them have their own staffing issues in getting drivers sometimes for their own food trucks.
We’re being understanding, and we’re being reasonable, but we’re also very much evaluating, do we need to really evaluate our national vendors, and what happens if things continue to drag out? We’re evaluating all of that. With respect to new suppliers, I think that’s the same. We’re all in this industry getting the same kind of stuff.
I think it’s also another opportunity to really work through these larger GPOs that may be able to join forces with other operators, or through the associations to order. We did that when we ordered pandemic supplies initially and then things obviously got back on track. No doubt about it, there’s tremendous pressure in supply chains. Especially with the holidays coming up, we’re ordering extra. For instance, for Thanksgiving and certainly the December holidays, we want to try to do nice things for our staff, maybe get a turkey or a pie or whatever it is. Literally, we’re placing those orders this week. That’s a good couple of weeks before we normally have to make those orders.
[00:42:44] Tim: You had mentioned that you spent two years actually working in a senior living community. You probably have a pretty unique perspective on what workers might want right now. What do you think is the key to attracting and retaining staff? Can you also share any workforce initiatives at Charter that are really moving the needle right now?
[00:43:29] Keven: I remember working as a caregiver of our employee base. To this day, it’s still a very transient position. You’re dealing with employees that are really not focused on next week or the week after, they’re focused on today. You want people to feel appreciated, and you have to pay them fairly. You don’t have a choice there. They deserve it. Quite honestly, they deserve more than what we certainly can pay. I’m actually happy that we’re able to start paying wages like that, but there’s also a revenue side of that that needs to be addressed.
I don’t care what position it is, whether it’s an hourly position or a management position, employees need to feel part of a family pretty darn quickly. Within certainly a minimum or maximum of 30 days, employees need to feel like they’re on a team. The operators out there know what I’m talking about. Sometimes that’s not always the easiest thing to do because you have to be very engaged and very involved talking to your employees.
We’re reevaluating all of our orientation programs to make sure people are given a proper orientation before they can just be thrown out on a floor because there’s a call-off on a Sunday night, or whatever it is. You have to take the time and listen to your employees. We offer an hourly incentive for folks where, just by doing their job, they could earn up to $2 an hour more by literally just clocking in and out on time, showing up to work on time, being good citizens and having no HR-related issues. We offer, I think, very attractive employer referral bonuses.
We very much encourage employees to go back to school where they can. A lot of companies have tuition reimbursement programs, but they’re not well-publicized. We are really trying to publicize tuition reimbursement. As a smaller company, I think we have an attractive 401(k) program, which we know that it’s attractive based on the current transitions we’ve to taken over. Honestly, being fair to the situation, you got to look at your HR policies. There’s certain things that are deal-breakers. No-call, no-shows, operationally — unless there’s a really good reason — that’s a deal-breaker.
We tend to give folks two, three, four different chances, maybe even more if there are extenuating circumstances. You have to work with your people. I think that also gets out to employees to tell their friends that, “Hey, look, these guys, they’re treating me a little differently in a good way.” I think that’s really impactful in these times.
[00:47:22] Tim: You mentioned there can be high turnover for these caregiver positions. Do you think the industry can change that, or is that just the nature of the position?
[00:48:09] Keven: I wish I had an answer to that. Number one, the employees that are at communities taking care of residents, I really believe those are special people. Those are people who are there and who want to help and they want to care for people. There are countless stories of how they were impacted by their grandparents, who cared for them as they grew up.
You have childcare situations, you have family situations. People have all kinds of things going on in their life. We try to understand that, and try to really help somebody on how to make their job as easy as possible, not just at work, but also that they can take home. We all know when we’re not at work, we’re probably thinking about work. Also, many employees are carrying a couple of jobs, so you have to be flexible with their schedules on their other employment as well.
I don’t think there’s a magic bullet, but I think it’s all under the umbrella of culture. You have to be relatable to them and you have to be fair. Also, evaluate exit interviews. Evaluate why people are leaving, or what happened, and so you can really get ahead of it. I honestly think it is going to make or break companies as to how you spend time focusing on employee engagement, recruitment, primarily retention. We spend 50% of our time talking about this, no doubt about it. For the next 24 months, I think it’s going to be a hot topic and on every operator’s priority list.
[00:50:33] Tim: I talked with an operator recently that hired a position and called it a move-in coordinator for employees. Their official title is retention specialist. And they are focused just completely on making sure that people, when they joined their community, felt like they belonged there. Does Charter have any roles like that? Are you thinking of adding any roles like that?
[00:51:09] Keven: The answer is yes. We have identified that a key area to focus on is your day-to-day recruitment. You should always be recruiting. We’re looking at either one or two potential positions that ultimately would be focused solely on that at the community level. They would look at hourly recruiting. If we needed a management replacement, we have relationships out there, but how do you help folks really look at the hourly recruiting with the systems that you’re using?
[00:51:54] Tim: This is another audience question. I’ll just read this verbatim. Related to the acquisitions and plans for renovations, is there an ideal timeframe for completion of renovations, post-acquisitions? And how have supply chain issues played into your ability to complete these in a timely manner?
[00:52:33] Keven: [chuckles] I think the answer is as soon as possible. I would say related to renovations, it all depends on the scope. For instance, we probably have a minimum of five to seven full renovations that are planned for 2022 with, I’ll say, more of the recent acquisitions we’ve taken on. Really the planning of that could easily take easily a good six weeks to make sure that you’re working with the right team, with the right amount of visitations to the communities. Photographs don’t necessarily do it justice, you have to be at the community to really see the renovations that need to happen.
The planning is easily up to six weeks, maybe even eight weeks. Then really placing the order, depending on what you’re ordering, could take 30 days to 2 months — maybe 3 months — to get the necessary supplies. If you’re doing a first-impression renovation of paint, carpet, light fixtures, those types of things, maybe cut that in half. Again, it just depends on the extent of it.
I would say this: I think you need to make sure that somebody on your team owns this process. Famous last words are ‘the designer is handling it.’ Everyone has stuff going on, everyone’s got priorities. Unless you have consistent communication, your lack of communication could also cause a month or two more of delays.
We’re dealing with this at a community: If you have a boiler that is 20-plus years old or 15 years old and you’re waiting for it to fail, you better be very careful because boiler supply chains right now, I think, are easily three, four, five months. They could even be longer. Large HVAC units, boilers, larger mechanical systems, if you are in need of those renovations, definitely plan for the worst on those. Don’t wait until failure. That’s just not a smart plan and there’s just not a lot of inventory out there.
[00:55:52] Tim: Let’s talk a little bit about the future and then we’ll wrap up. As you look ahead into 2022, first off, what are you most worried about? What are you most excited about?
[00:56:25] Keven: I would say my worst worry would be another Covid situation. I think we can all just get that out on the table. Let’s hope and pray that nothing like this ever happens. As an industry, I think we’ve pulled together to do some pretty good things. Again, I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think we’re prepared for outbreaks. We still have Covid cases in some of our communities, as many others do, but they’re much less extreme per se.
I think number two is staffing. Right now, I think I read something last week that said there’s 10 million people that can work that aren’t working. And again, it’s not just senior living. You feel this when you go out to a restaurant or you go to a supermarket.
I’m excited about the things that we’re trying to do to keep employees motivated to stay. I didn’t mention this, but when we take on new acquisitions, for instance, we honor tenure. I’m actually at a community right now and we have an employee here that’s worked at this community, this building for 31 years. We don’t want people to feel like they’re starting over, so you have put your employees first. In the same token, I think that is a direct correlation to taking great care of residents. You can’t lose sight of that.
Optimistically, I think the demographics are still incredibly strong as a company. From March to September, if we look at our same-store operations, our occupancy has grown a little over 10%, which is significant. Standalone memory care has been a little more challenging to lease-up, but those are inching along. I think this industry is not going away and there is tremendous need. Families need help, residents need help, and we’re the solution for that help. I think we’re the best solution out there.
We hear it all the time that, ‘Mom’s at home alone, she’s got 24-hour caregiving.’ That’s fine, but socialization, dining, those are other key elements. Isolation is something we learned a lot about with this pandemic. A lot of the isolation really impacted residents and families. It could be the worst part.
No matter what, I just think our industry, we’re going to get through this and we’re going to be better for it. I really think that the demand, it’s still there. Look at the statistics and the bell curves: this industry should be strong for many more years to come.
[01:00:13] Tim: Those are good words to end it on. Keven Bennema, thank you so much for coming on TALKS. This has been great.
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