Long Island widow, 89, paid $1M to join senior facility before it went bankrupt — wiping out most of her savings
长岛一位 89 岁的遗孀，在一家老年设施破产前支付了 100 万美元加入其中——导致她大部分积蓄被耗尽
An 89-year-old Long Island widow who sold her family’s house to pay the nearly $1 million fee to live at a local retirement home had to move out of the facility after it fell into bankruptcy — one of hundreds of residents nationwide who have lost their nest eggs.
一位 89 岁的长岛寡妇为了支付近 100 万美元的入住费而卖掉了她家的房子，住进当地一家养老院，但该养老院破产后，她不得不搬离——她是全国数百名失去养老积蓄的居民之一。
Arlene Kohen moved into Harborside, a luxury senior community in Port Washington, in January 2020 after selling her family’s home in Great Neck for $838,000 to afford the required $945,000 entrance fee.
阿琳·科恩在 2020 年 1 月卖掉了她家在格莱特颈价值 83.8 万美元的房子，以负担所需的 94.5 万美元的入门费，随后搬进了波特华盛顿的豪华养老社区哈伯赛德。
Harborside, which filed for bankruptcy three times — in 2014, 2021 and 2023 — had assured her that 75% of the entrance fee would be refundable to her heirs or returned if she left the facility.
哈伯赛德在 2014 年、2021 年和 2023 年申请了三次破产——它曾向她保证，如果她离开该设施，入门费的 75%将可退还给她的继承人或返还。
4Arlene Kohen, 89, was evicated from a retirement home on Long Island after it went bankrupt.
89 岁的阿琳·科恩在长岛的养老院破产后被驱逐。CBS New York CBS 纽约
By the end of her stay, she was also paying $5,700 in monthly fees, according to the Wall Street Journal.
据《华尔街日报》报道，在她入住结束时，她每月还需支付 5,700 美元的费用。
But after the last bankruptcy and sale to a new investor, Kohen had to move out because the new owner scaled back on care services, according to the Journal.
但在最后一次破产并被新投资者收购后，据《华尔街日报》报道，科恩不得不搬走，因为新业主削减了护理服务。
Her daughter, Beverly Kohen Fried, told the Journal that the family now expects to recover less than one-third of the $710,000 refund they were promised.
她的女儿，贝弗利·科恩·弗里德，告诉《华尔街日报》，现在家人预计只能收回他们被承诺的 71 万美元退款的三分之一以下。
“That’s money that I’ll never see,” Fried said.
“那是永远也见不到的钱，”弗里德说。
The financial devastation is not limited to Harborside. The collapse of a growing number of continuing-care retirement communities (CCRCs) across the United States has left thousands of elderly residents facing the loss of their homes, promised care and substantial portions of their life savings.
财务灾难并不局限于哈伯赛德。美国越来越多的持续护理退休社区（CCRC）的破产，导致数千名老年居民面临失去家园、承诺的护理服务以及他们大部分积蓄的损失。
At least 16 CCRCs have filed for bankruptcy since 2020, impacting over 1,000 families and wiping out more than $190 million in entrance fees, according to court filings and data from healthcare restructuring firm Gibbins Advisors.
根据法院文件和医疗重组公司 Gibbins Advisors 的数据，自 2020 年以来，至少有 16 个 CCRC 申请破产，影响了超过 1000 个家庭，并导致超过 1.9 亿美元的入会费被抹消。
4Kohen lost most of her life savings after Harborside in Port Washington went bankrupt.
科恩在波特华盛顿的哈伯赛德设施破产之后，失去了她大部分的生活储蓄。CBS New York CBS 纽约
Henry Ford Village in Michigan, Unisen Senior Living in Florida and Casey’s Pond in Colorado are among other CCRCs that have filed for bankruptcy in recent years.
密歇根州的亨利福特村、佛罗里达州的 Unisen 老年生活中心和科罗拉多州的 Casey’s Pond 是近年来申请破产的其他持续护理退休社区。
At Henry Ford Village, $112 million in unpaid refunds went to unsecured creditors. In the case of Unisen, more than 100 residents were evicted after the facility shut down.
在亨利福特村，1.12 亿美元的未支付退款给了无担保债权人。在 Unisen 的情况下，设施关闭后，超过 100 名居民被驱逐。
At Casey’s Pond, a $30 million fundraising effort was needed to keep the community afloat despite $68.4 million owed to bondholders.
在 Casey’s Pond，尽管欠债券持有人 6.84 亿美元，但仍需要 3000 万美元的筹款活动来维持社区运营。
CCRCs are designed to allow seniors to age in place, starting with independent living and transitioning to assisted living or memory care as needed. In return, residents pay steep upfront entrance fees — typically between $200,000 and $1 million — based on contracts that often include a promise of partial refunds.
CCRCs 旨在让老年人能够在熟悉的环境中安度晚年，从独立生活开始，根据需要过渡到辅助生活或记忆照护。作为回报，住户需要支付高额的入门费——通常在 20 万美元到 100 万美元之间——这些费用基于通常包含部分退款承诺的合同。
However, in bankruptcy proceedings, these residents are treated as unsecured creditors and often receive only a fraction of their expected refunds.
然而，在破产程序中，这些居民被视为无担保债权人，通常只能收到预期退款的一部分。
Although bankruptcies remain rare — less than 1% of the nearly 1,900 CCRCs nationwide have filed since 2020 — the consequences for those affected can be devastating. About 623,000 people lived in such communities as of 2023, according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.
尽管破产案件仍然罕见——自 2020 年以来，全国近 1900 家 CCRC 中不足 1%的机构提交了破产申请——但对受影响者的后果可能是毁灭性的。据美国老年人住房与护理投资中心统计，截至 2023 年，约有 623000 人居住在这样的社区中。
4Her daughter, Beverly Kohen Fried, told the Journal that the family now expects to recover less than one-third of the $710,000 refund they were promised.
她的女儿，贝弗利·科恩·弗里德，告诉《华尔街日报》，现在家人预计只能收回他们被承诺的 71 万美元退款的三分之一以下。CBS New York CBS 纽约
The structure of the CCRC business model makes them particularly vulnerable to economic downturns and shifts in the housing market. Many rely on the sale of new entrance fees to service debt or fund day-to-day operations, while maintaining modest reserves.
CCRC 商业模式的结构使其特别容易受到经济衰退和房地产市场变化的影响。许多人依赖销售新的入门费来偿还债务或资助日常运营，同时保持适度的储备。
The inability of prospective residents to sell their homes during housing slumps — such as during the subprime mortgage crisis or the COVID-19 pandemic — can quickly lead to financial instability.
潜在居民在住房低迷时期无法出售其住房——例如在次贷危机或 COVID-19 大流行期间——可能会导致迅速的财务不稳定。
That was the case with Harborside, which opened in 2010, just after the housing crash. Entrance fees ranged from $425,000 to $1.7 million, and the owner — a nonprofit subsidiary of Amsterdam Continuing Care Health System — used those upfront payments to pay down $120 million in construction bonds.
Harborside 就是这种情况，它于 2010 年住房崩盘后开业。入门费范围从 42.5 万美元到 170 万美元，所有者——阿姆斯特丹持续护理健康系统的一个非营利子公司——用这些预付款来偿还 1.2 亿美元的建造债券。
But the community filled less than 60% of its 229 independent-living units in two years and filed its first bankruptcy in 2014. After briefly stabilizing, the COVID pandemic stalled new move-ins, leading to further defaults and bankruptcy filings.
但该社区在两年内仅入住不到 60%的 229 个独立生活单元，并在 2014 年首次申请破产。短暂稳定后，新冠疫情使新入住停滞，导致进一步违约和破产申请。
Although bondholders supported financial restructuring during Harborside’s earlier bankruptcies, preserving residents’ contracts, a final default in 2022 forced a sale of the property.
尽管在 Harborside 早期的破产中，债权人支持财务重组以保留居民的合同，但 2022 年的最终违约迫使出售了该物业。
Focus Healthcare Partners, a Chicago-based investor, purchased Harborside out of bankruptcy.
芝加哥的投资者 Focus Healthcare Partners 从破产中收购了 Harborside。
“I’m sympathetic to the situation,” Curt Schaller, a principal at the firm, told the Journal but he noted that his company had no control over how sale proceeds were divided between bondholders and residents.
“我对这种情况表示同情，”公司合伙人 Curt Schaller 告诉《期刊》，但他指出，公司无法控制销售收益如何在债券持有人和居民之间分配。
4Focus Healthcare Partners, a Chicago-based investor, purchased Harborside out of bankruptcy.
芝加哥-based 的投资公司 Focus Healthcare Partners 从破产中收购了 Harborside。CBS New York CBS 纽约
The Post has sought comment from Schaller.
《邮报》已向施拉勒寻求评论。
Under the terms of the latest bankruptcy plan, 187 current and former Harborside residents have agreed to accept up to 32% of their entry fees, totaling about $121 million.
根据最新破产计划的条款，187 名现任和前任哈伯赛德居民同意接受其入会费的 32%以下，总计约 1.21 亿美元。
Among them is Bob Curtis, an 88-year-old who paid $840,000 under a 50% refund plan. Curtis remains in his one-bedroom apartment, but had to move his wife Sandy, who needed memory care, to a new facility in February. She died in April due to complications from a fall.
其中包括 88 岁的鲍勃·柯蒂斯，他根据 50%退款计划支付了 84 万美元。柯蒂斯仍住在他的一居室公寓里，但不得不在 2 月份将需要记忆照护的妻子桑迪转移到新的设施。她因摔倒并发症于 4 月去世。
Curtis hopes to receive a $50,000 refund this fall, with another $100,000 potentially coming later, contingent on the sale of an affiliated asset in Manhattan.
柯蒂斯希望今年秋季获得 5 万美元的退款，另外 10 万美元可能稍后到手，前提是曼哈顿的关联资产能够出售。
The US Senate Special Committee on Aging warned in 2010 that CCRCs are “particularly vulnerable during economic downturns” and urged states to strengthen consumer protections. But regulation has remained uneven.
美国参议院老龄化特别委员会在 2010 年警告说，持续照料退休社区在经济衰退期间“尤其脆弱”，并敦促各州加强消费者保护。但监管一直不均衡。
As the population ages and demand for senior housing grows, the financial and emotional risks tied to the CCRC model have come under increasing scrutiny.
随着人口老龄化以及养老住房需求的增长，与 CCRC 模式相关的财务和情感风险正受到越来越多的审视。
With more than 5% of the $36 billion in municipal bonds issued for these facilities currently in default, experts warn that without stronger oversight and protections, more seniors could find their life savings and long-term care promises vanish overnight.
由于目前为这些设施发行的 360 亿美元市政债券中超过 5%已处于违约状态，专家警告说，如果没有更严格的监管和保护措施，更多老年人可能会发现他们的积蓄和长期护理承诺在一夜之间化为乌有。
Florida, which treats CCRCs as a specialty insurance product, was still unable to prevent the closure of Unisen and the eviction of its residents. Efforts to strengthen protections failed after industry advocates argued the reforms would raise costs for seniors.
佛罗里达州将 CCRC 视为一种特殊保险产品，但仍未能阻止 Unisen 的关闭及其居民的驱逐。在行业倡导者认为改革将提高老年人的成本后，加强保护的努力失败了。
“Many states…lack the expertise” to regulate CCRCs effectively, Katherine Pearson, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University’s Dickinson Law, told the Journal.
宾夕法尼亚州立大学迪金森法学院的法律教授凯瑟琳·皮尔逊告诉《期刊》，“许多州……缺乏监管 CCRCs 的专业知识。”
“You need expertise that’s equivalent of insurance commissioners’ expertise if you’re going to regulate that.”
“如果你要监管 CCRCs，你需要与保险专员专业知识相当的专业知识。”
