Nine assisted living communities in Georgia and California are facing legal scrutiny over allegations that they discriminated against employees and prospective residents.
In one case, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that Covenant Woods, a Columbus, GA, personal care and independent living community operated by Covenant Woods Senior Living and BrightSpace Senior Living, fired a 78-year-old employee after she briefly was hospitalized. The woman, who had been a receptionist for 14 years and had been recognized as an employee of the year in January 2022, was replaced by a “significantly younger employee,” according to the EEOC.
The community’s general manager reportedly told the employee that she no longer had confidence in the woman’s ability to work and cited the recent hospitalization despite never previously raising any substantial performance concerns to the receptionist.
“We at Brightspace and Covenant Woods disagree that we have in any way engaged in unlawful discrimination,” BrightSpace Senior Living CFO Brian Hendricks told McKnight’s Senior Living. “We remain committed to our residents and associates.”
The EEOC said that it filed the lawsuit in US District Court for the Middle District of Georgia after pre-litigation settlement discussions were unsuccessful. The EEOC alleges that the community violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Covenant Woods violated both statutes when it terminated [the employment of] a high-performing and long-tenured employee on the unfounded assumption that her age and medical condition would prevent her from doing her job,” Marcus G. Keegan, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office, said in a statement.
Fair housing allegations
Meanwhile, three Los Angeles assisted living communities in the Koreatown neighborhood, and their operators, were sued for allegedly refusing to allow non-Koreans to become residents. And in another California case, five assisted living communities agreed to a $110,000 settlement over alleged failures to accommodate older adults who have hearing disabilities.
In the Koreatown case, last week, the Fair Housing Federation of Southern California and two individuals filed a lawsuit in US District Court for the Central District of California against A Better Tomorrow Care Corp., which operates Garden Silver Town; S.M. Healthcare Inc., which operates Mugunghwa Silvertown; and Spark Family Operations LLC, which operates Sunny Hills Assisted Living.
The communities predominantly serve residents who are Korean, offer Korean food and employ workers who mainly speak Korean. The nonprofit housing advocate claimed that the communities discriminated by refusing to accept applications from non-Korean individuals and in doing so, violated the Fair Employment and Housing Act.
The lawsuit alleges that seven non-Korean “testers” were told that the communities only accepted Koreans, whereas three Korean testers were “moved further along in the admissions process, were given a tour and allowed to submit the prospective resident’s medical records,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
The communities have denied the allegations, suggesting that miscommunication was possible between a non-English-speaking staff member who was answering phone calls in a receptionist’s absence.
In the other case, the Fair Housing Federation of Southern California settled with five California assisted living communities for $110,000 after mediation over allegations that the communities did not provide an American Sign Language interpreter for a prospective resident, actually a “fictional deaf grandmother,” during a test of the communities.
The affected Southern California communities — located in Hermosa Beach, San Gabriel, Torrance, Thousand Oaks and Playa Vista — are operated or managed by Sunrise Senior Living Management, Welltower Opco Group LLC, SZR Westlake Village Propco, AL US/San Gabriel Senior Housing LP, Sunrise Torrance Senior PropCo LLC and AL US/Playa Vista Senior Housing.
In addition to monetary penalties, the settlement announced by the California Civil Rights Department requires the communities to take proactive steps to prevent future discrimination, including training, policy changes and information provided to prospective residents about their civil rights.
