Financing the Perception of Safety
Senior Living Survey Finds Residents Feel Safe, Glad to be Part of a Community During Pandemic
In the summer of 2020, HJ Sims participated in the Senior Living COVID-19 Sentiment Report, which surveyed over 4,000 current and prospective senior living community residents to assess their thoughts and feelings at the beginning of and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The old saying of “You don’t know what you’re missing until you try it” is something that rang true in the results.
Survey results found that prospective residents were glad to be at home during the pandemic, yet also highly ranked the safety, security, and peace of mind they attributed to living in a senior living community.
Executive Vice President, Lynn Daly delves into how providers can use this feedback to identify and prioritize “needs” versus “wants” that can be beneficial initiatives for communities to increase the perception of safety, security and peace of mind among prospects. Some examples identified include:
- What financial strategies are available during a low-interest rate environment?
- When should my community consider refinancing fixed-rate debt?
- What benefits can financing capital expenditures provide?
- Should my community pass a “Reimbursement Resolution”?
Considerations, and the full report are available for download. The Survey, published by Plante Moran Living Forward and Retirement DYNAMICS®, was distributed to 23,000+ residents and staff at senior independent living communities nation-wide, along with prospective residents.
IF I COULD DO IT OVER
An Update to the Senior Living Community Sentiment Report
by Gayl Mileszko, Senior Vice President and Director of Credit Analysis
Knowing what we know now after 10 months of living with the pandemic, if we now could magically blink our way back to February, what would we have changed about where we live and work? Who would we want to have closest to us for peace of mind and for help when needed? What items would we have procured ahead of time to make our homes more comfortable and secure? How differently would we have structured our days and finances to better cope with the long, uncertain period ahead?
These are questions that have been asked over and over millions of times and the right answers vary with each circumstance. But we find some commonality among those in senior living communities, and share our key findings in our latest report.
