After declaring bankruptcy last June, Friendship Village of Schaumburg, IL, still owes refunds of entrance fees to dozens of residents or their families. Now they are set to split $2 million being held in trust to process the refunds, which one family member says equals approximately 10% of what is due.
Once one of the nation’s largest nonprofit continuing care retirement communities, Friendship Village cited pandemic-related losses for its financial straits. The CCRC agreed in October to a $115M bankruptcy deal, with the community being sold to Encore Healthcare Services of New York, an existing operator of senior living communities.
Refunds of entrance fees became an issue when Friendship Village announced its bankruptcy in June. Families owed entry fee or deposit refunds were among the communities’ main debtors, with most owed between $100,000 and $500,000.
“There’s $2 million that’s been set aside by the purchaser intended to cover the roughly $20 million of monies owed to these former residents. So it’s roughly, as we understand it, roughly 10 cents on the dollar,” Dan Scheibenreif told the Chicago affiliate of NBC News. Scheibenreif’s late father was a resident of Friendship Village.
According to the news outlet, the entrance fee was $262,000.
“You’re talking about over 100 families to the tune of $20 million of collective wealth. It’s just gone,” Scheibenreif said. “A lot of the money that he had envisioned sort of passing on and helping his grandkids and great grandkids — it’s just, it’s just gone.”
