All we hear about is how COVID-19 is spreading through skilled nursing facilities and some seniors housing communities. Bad news sells, pure and simple. We certainly know that, and there has been plenty of bad news the past few years, and weeks. Have you ever seen the headline, “65 residents at assisted living community drank and danced at a Mardi Gras party”? Really, never? It has happened. But it is not all doom and gloom out there.
Last week we spoke with a mid-sized California operator of assisted living communities in the state, and so far, they have been spared much of the COVID pain. Of the approximately dozen or so assisted living communities they operate, just four residents in one community have tested positive, and all four are doing fairly well with no immediate need to move them to a hospital. So far so good. He did not want to have their name disclosed because, well, you know, bad luck and all that.
There is another assisted living provider, primarily operating in the Southeast, with about 10 communities that has been on top of not only the virus, but their customers, including family members. Actually, all over them. They are tracking revenues by community and comparing them every week with what happened, using the week ending March 8 as the benchmark, since it was really after that week when the virus started to spread, or at least with confirmed cases. The real impact, as we have heard from some public companies and REITs, didn’t really hit until April.
For this provider, in the week ended April 12, total revenues were just 2.0% lower than the benchmark week in March. But, revenues in that most recent week were actually higher than the previous week. When comparing the most recent week with the previous week, three communities posted higher revenues, four were flat and two were lower. Given all the difficulties around the country, that is not too shabby. Actually, that is enviable. And the best news? No positive cases of COVID-19 in their communities.
In another surprising story, a large national operator of independent living communities told us that in the first two weeks of April, they had 25 move-ins at their new community in Arkansas, with 34 the expected number for the full month. The number would have been higher, except that for some of the new residents the movers were not allowed into the retirement community they were moving out of to take their furniture. So, those people are stuck in limbo, at least for a while.
The point is that while there are problems across the country, and big hurdles for many providers to get over, many seniors housing providers are still doing well, their residents are safe and happy, and, we suspect, their family members are glad they are there and being well taken care of.
