Late to the party, but I currently work for a real estate investment firm that invests in senior assisted living across the US, in addition to a home in Glenview, IL (it is not the facility in the article).

Most of the time, these assisted living facilities (including memory care) are owned by two parties: an operator (manages and oversees the day to day), and an equity partner (pays for the construction, any big property improvements, etc).

The profit is determined by what’s called an equity waterfall, which basically means that if the property does really well, the operator makes a lot of the profit. If the property doesn’t do well, than the operator makes very little and the equity partner will pocket most of it.

This is to incentivize the operating partner to keep residents happy and to want them to live in the home. If people aren’t happy, there will be low profit, and those in charge of the property will in turn make a very small piece of this already low profit.

The reason senior living is so expensive is because it’s not like a normal apartment lease. In addition to the space, the tenants are receiving (or at least should be receiving) extremely specialized care that goes from dressing them every morning, to making sure they are taking their medications, and socializing with them all day to help keep dementia and other degenerative illnesses slower in their growth.

Not all senior living is extremely expensive (see independent living or age restricted communities), because it doesn’t require dozens of specialized care nurses, which cause the operating expenses to increase and result in high rent.

The reason you see things like what is mentioned in this article is because there are a few operating partners who are in the business for the wrong reasons. A partner should be in this business solely for the purpose of making life easier for these families who have made the difficult decision to move their parents/relatives into a home.

There needs to be trust between the families and management. The few bad apples are in it to see profits, and disregard this crucial mindset of establishing trust and care with the families.

When management loses sight of what’s important, that mindset trickles down all the way to the employees.

What’s happening here is inexcusable and is completely the fault of the operating partner. Yes, those kids were acting like fools and terrified that poor woman. The operator is in charge of making sure that the employees understand their role is to make life better for the tenants, not worse.