No talking about deals, values, stock prices and cap rates, not even Brookdale Senior Living. It’s time to talk labor.

I know you usually hear me talking about deals, values, stock prices and cap rates, and let’s not forget Brookdale Senior Living. But I am going to digress a bit from the usual. The entire seniors housing and care business seems to be avoiding what I really believe is going to be a labor meltdown. Cost is one thing, and it is already impacting the bottom line of many providers. But the quality, the training, or lack of, is just something that I think is still missing, and it will begin to poke holes into the marketing pitch for seniors housing and care. For all of these new communities opening up, where is the staff coming from? We hear from the competition. But then where are they getting the replacements from? Hotels, restaurants, 30 hours of training, if that? How are companies going to pay for the training that really should occur? Everyone is now talking about it. But what are they doing about it? What are you doing about it? This problem needs to be solved before there is a real meltdown, and before regulations overwhelm the sector. It’s time to get our collective heads out of the sand.