Surveillance video captured a 97-year-old woman’s death outside the locked doors of a high-end Colorado home, a symptom of deeper problems in the $34 billion industry
Balfour managers proposed raising wages to hire and retain more and better caregivers to improve resident safety. But to do that, the managers said, Balfour needed the approval of Welltower, the $40 billion investment firm that owned Lavender Farms.
Executives at Welltower balked.
“Their position was: We are trying to increase our profitability,” said one former Balfour executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. “Care is an ancillary part of the conversation.”
For two decades, Balfour has been a star of the senior-housing industry, marketing its properties like boutique hotels, replete with high-end furnishings, fine dining and concierge services. But as Welltower and other professional investors have acquired the buildings where Balfour operates, waves of cost cutting have left it unable to meet the basic needs of many residents, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Last year, resident Mary Jo Staub, 97, died after banging repeatedly on the locked doors of Lavender Farms in subfreezing temperatures. Her death was among at least 20 incidents of neglect, missing people or avoidable deaths cited by state inspectors at Balfour’s Colorado facilities since its founding in 1997. Since
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