Senior living and care operators have reported a steady pace of move-ins for several months, but the “tripledemic” — respiratory syncytial virus, influenza and COVID-19 — is tempering the pace. That’s according to the latest Executive Survey Insights report released Thursday by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.
The Wave 48 survey includes responses received from Nov. 14 to Dec. 11 from owners and executives of 40 small, medium and large senior living and skilled nursing operators across the nation. Those respondents represent hundreds of buildings and thousands of units across respondents’ portfolios of properties.
Lead volumes have increased in recent months, but with the pace of move-ins tempering, “the reported increase in lead volumes is not yet materializing with move-ins,” NIC Senior Principal Ryan Brooks wrote.
Staffing mixed bag
The survey offered mixed results on staffing. Although challenges related to staffing appear to be lessening, when asked whether they were currently experiencing a staffing shortage, 90% of respondents indicated that staffing still is an issue. Regarding the current share of all full-time open positions across respondent organizations, approximately two out of five, or 20%, respondents have between 10% and 20% of full-time positions unfilled, whereas roughly one in five respondents have 20% or more positions currently unfilled. This is an improvement from the Wave 42 findings from June 2022, Brooks noted, where one-half of respondents had between 10% and 20% of full-time positions unfilled and another one in five had 20% or more full-time positions unfilled.
“Of these organizations reporting a staffing shortage, one-third are experiencing the shortage in the entirety of their property portfolio, while another one-third are experiencing the shortage at more than 50% of their properties,” Brooks noted.
Approximately 90% of the respondents said that they have overtime wages to meet staffing needs, and 68% of the respondents said that they currently are tapping staffing agencies for help. Of those organizations that said they use agency or temporary staff, about half said that they expect the need to decrease in the next six months.
According to the survey, operators are optimistic that the labor shortage will ease in 2023. Thirty percent of the respondents said that they expect staffing challenges to improve in the first six months of the year; another 36% anticipate improvements in the second half of 2023. One in six respondents (17%) predicted that it will take until 2024 before staffing challenges improve; another 17% said they do not expect the staffing challenges to go away until at least 2025.
No rent concessions
Zero responding organizations in the Wave 48 survey said that they are offering rent concessions in all their properties, down from 7% in Wave 46 and 20% in Wave 45.
Brooks wrote, however, that “almost one-half (45%) of organizations are currently offering rent concessions in just 0-25% of their properties, while one-third (36%) are currently offering rent concessions in 26-50% of their properties. Of organizations who are currently offering rent concessions, the most common forms being offered are rent discounts (39%), followed by free rent for a specific period of time (26%), upgrades to units (13%) and rent freezes (13%).”
