The impending closure of a Beverly, MA, assisted living community highlights the need for additional regulations to protect assisted living residents, according to advocates for older adults in the state.
Under current Massachusetts law, assisted living communities are subject to the same tenant / landlord laws that apply to any other tenant, the Salem News reported.
The issue made headlines when the owners of the community notified residents that their home was closing and that they had 90 days to move out.
“We understand that this situation will impact each person reading this in a variety of ways, and we want you to know that we do not make this decision lightly and we are committed to support you through the process,” Ross Dingman, the company’s managing partner, wrote to residents, according to a separate article by the Salem News.
According to the media outlet, Paul Lanzikos, the state’s former elder affairs secretary and former executive director of North Shore Elder Services, called the 90-day notice “outrageous.”
Perhaps hardest hit by the closure will be residents who participate in the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly administered by MassHealth and Medicare, Salem News reported.
The community’s owners, who formed their company in 2019, are part of a lawsuit in which they are accused of stealing trade secrets from their former employer, Brightview Senior Living, to establish their own company
