Bringing a smaller, home-like feel to assisted living and memory care has become a mission for Brandon Schwab, founder and CEO of Crystal Lake, IL-based Shepherd Premier Senior Living, the operating company for Boutique Senior Living, and fund manager at Boutique Senior Living Fund, which is the financing arm of the venture.
Boutique Senior Living operates communities with 10 to 20 people per home. The idea is to offer a personalized and family-like environment for older adults. Each home has at least one caregiver on site at all times, with each caregiver working eight hours per shift. The first and second shifts are staffed with two caregivers each, with one caregiver on site at night. A nurse comes in each day, and a physician visits once a month.
“We are providing a type of care and a home that’s unheard of,” Schwab told the McKnight’s Business Daily. “When you have a person for every five to eight people, it gives you an opportunity to create a closer connection, and they become more like family.”
After having a negative experience with a larger senior living community, Schwab said, he happened on a smaller model of care while visiting Florida in 2014. He entered a home that had five residents and one caregiver.
“When I came back home, I expected these homes to be everywhere. Apparently in Florida, there’s 1,800 of these homes. In California, there‘s 2,800 of these homes that are under 15 beds. Arizona has 15,” Schwab said. “And when I came back home to Illinois, there were 55. There is a huge need, but also there was an opportunity — I was in an area where people haven’t heard of this yet.”
Schwab said he seized the opportunity to grow the concept in the Midwest. Boutique owns five homes. Three more homes are expected to be opened this year, and the company owns 7.2 acres of land on which to build six homes. Schwab’s aim is to have 300 homes within the next five years and 3,000 homes within the next 10 years.
All residents of Boutique homes use private funds at this point; 7% of them have long-term care policies.
Overall occupancy among Boutique properties is 85%, according to the company. The percentage would be even higher, Schwab said, but one home, which opened in May, operates in a less affluent area that cannot support it. For that home, the company is pivoting toward a community living facility designation that will enable care for 22 to 64 year olds who have developmental disabilities.
Residents of the Boutique homes typically are 80 to 85 years old, Schwab said, and the average length of stay is 3.2 years. Ninety percent of the residents are female, he added.
