Chicago area residents flee from senior community after 300% increase in costs
Chicago area residents flee from senior community after 300% increase in costs
Over the last several weeks, the Saint Charles senior living community has become a bit of a ghost town.
And yet they'll all still vote Republican.
A majority of Democratic voters (57%) were ages 50 and older in the 2022 midterms, compared with 51% of Joe Biden’s voters in 2020 and 53% of voters who supported a Democratic House candidate in 2018. Just 14% of Democratic voters were under the age of 30 in 2022 — similar to the 15% of Democratic voters who were in this age group in 2018, but less than their share of Democratic voters in 2020 (17%).
Seven-in-ten Republican voters were 50 and older in the most recent election, compared with 62% of Republican voters in 2020 and 68% in 2018.
Those are people who actually voted in the off-year election, not people whos view or registration. https://www.statista.com/statistics/319068/party-identification-in-the-united-states-by-generation/ shows that those in Gen x and above (43 year old an above) Republicans have a ~10% margin over Democrats. Even Pew agrees that Party or Leans-Party favors Republicans in the over 50 group by roughly the same margin https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/06/02/the-changing-composition-of-the-electorate-and-partisan-coalitions/
thats because 50 is past the middway point for the Xers. If you look at the 65+ band republicans increased over democrats 20 to 22.
Illinois has been voting blue since 1992, the current president is a Democrat, what does this have to do with republicans?
Elderly people without family support are going to end up on the streets en masse because of things like this.
Euthanasia will be legalised and normalised sooner than we expwct
Already happening here in Canada!
This is already happening in Canada. Even though self assisted suicide is only for those already facing a terrible and unavoidable near death, we have multiple reports of medical staff recommending it for people who can be treated… which doesn’t magically get them on some death list, it just exposes the medical staff for being an apathetic idiot.
That's entirely possible
Family Support
The Boomers can have exactly as much family support as they gave to those who came after.
"Your 17. Get the fuck out". "Now I'm poor and elderly, and it's your problem" ay lmao
Some parents love their kids, believe it or not.
"we're not being malicious, we're just pumping prices like everyone else regardless of humans. because profits."
"Everybody's doing it. In capitalism, you try to get the highest price you can for a product."
- Martin Shkreli
Who, if you don't remember, obtained the manufacturing license for the antiparasitic drug Daraprim and raised its price by 5,455% (from US$13.50 to $750 per pill).
Why y'all so bloodthirsty? These people might not be destitute but they're not billionaires. They planned for a retirement and got it, and now they're getting evicted. They're victims of a cruel system that hurts everyone. Capitalism won't even reward people who "play by the rules", whatever those are supposed to be. Nothing wrong with having empathy. The same boot is stepping on poor people too.
Maybe if people's grandparents with nice retirements are getting evicted somebody will give a shit.
Humans suck. They always have. You can't expect them to do the right thing on their own. There must be laws, and there must be enforcement.
Why isn't the government stepping up to end this kind of greedy practice? Because it's made out of humans and, well....
... humans suck.
Sorry, but as a human I have seen the good things we also do. You look like you are surrounded by either humans with toxic personalities, people who are oppressed by capitalism (the rat race), or have some underlying mental issues yourself. Regardless of what the reason may be, please get mental help, and no this isn't in any way a funny pun or an insult to you, I just want you to know that you are loved and with mental help you can see how beautiful people can be (I did).
Please take care random internet stranger.
Friend, “humans suck” is an easy opinion to hold if you’re already feeling defeated. Things can be better but enough people have to want it. I refuse to give up. I’ll do what I can, even if it’s only voting. Even if it’s just speaking up when people in my IRL life hold half-baked opinions and spread misinformation.
I will have hope, I think you should too.
Market rate, bitch, pay up or hit the streets. #trump #republican #deregulation #sarcasm
Landleeches gonna landleech
One of my old landlords did this to me after I reported them to the city for ignoring severe water damage for 2 months. The city sent a health inspector who took one look and said they had to fix it. Landlord showed up with his goon squad to intimidate me, then hit me with a 200% increase.
When nobody stands up to these corporations, they can get away with anything.
How are there not laws protecting these of most vulnerable people.
Because capitalists run the government.
Those old people put them there, and are going to continue to vote for them even after personally experiencing this. It's hard to feel bad.
On the off chance I ever retire I am never going to a retirement community. I will either bother my remaining family with my care or just be found a month later during a wellness checkup, dead on my own kitchen floor after falling.
I don't trust these "communities". I don't trust any "community" that has a buy in.
My plan is to go to a South American country where I can get a living visa to live of the pennies I'll get from my Social Security checks in one of their elderly care facilities.
Plan for warm weather.
Frankly, I'd rather live under a freeway overpass. Or just die.
Is there a difference between retirement community and retirement home? In Spain residences for older people are very popular and nice. I know people living there and they are very happy, better than they would be at home by their own admission.
Sam Zell was doing the same shit in the '00s (and still is) and even in the same area https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-05-27-0705260052-story.html this one ended up with my grandmother losing her retirement plans she financing.
There's always scams and they often target those most vulnerable who can't fight back. You'd think there should be some protections or safety nets but gods of capitalism require blood sacrifices
I'm not sure if you read the article, or if your grandma was fabulously wealthy, but everyone involved here is rich as shit.
People like French paid a few hundred thousand dollars upfront to live in the community, then taxes, utilities, and a maintenance fee every month. In recent years, that maintenance fee has risen above $1,300.
"We thought that was outrageous," French said. "Little did we know what was coming."
What was coming was $6,150 a month, a more than 300% increase from new property owner, Jaybird Senior Living.
These are wealthy people who paid hundreds of thousands upfront to a place they still technically rent from. They can easily move, and they absolutely have the money to fight back.
Senior living is often fraught with bullshit but these people are just angry that their gated community got more expensive. They weren't priced out, they were annoyed.
Going by the first sentence of your link, these are two very different situations
The head of Illinois' mobile home owners association, Terry Nelson, is elated.
The homes in the article we're commenting on are quite different from mobile homes.
Same area, st Charles and Elgin are one town apart. It's been a while since I checked but I think $100k-200k would be the average house price in the area. I'm a little closer to the city than those burbs and tiny foreclosures that aren't even up to code can be 200k.
So yeah that might be rich compared to some areas but for this area it's not but all surprising.
This news are actually quite similar. You'll find in both people investing heavily, most of their retirement savings, to establish themselves and then the management company or property owner jacking up the rent to the point where people can no longer live there and have to abandon their investment/retirement fund. Not too complicated of a comparison really.
These are retirees who likely have pensions and 401Ks built up over half a century.
If you want to talk about wealthy people, what about the people who likely spent tens of millions of dollars to buy out the community and then jacked up fees by $50k per year overnight? Why can't they be the ones suffering rather than some 95 year old woman who now needs to move and leave everyone she knows behind?
My 95 year old mom lives in an assisted living facility. She's in a 1 bed, 2 bath apt with a kitchen and living area. Her utilities and meals are paid for. Her rent is over $6k a month, and she's still fairly independent. She's in her right mind--no dementia at all. She can bathe and dress herself, get herself to the bathroom, get herself into and out of bed, can walk without assistance and handles her own meds.
Once she needs assistance with any of the above, her rent goes up by $1k a month.
She just got a complete health workup, and they gave her a life prediction of 10 years. (Her mom and aunts/uncles all lived to be at least 104.)
Luckily, my dad left her with a sizable amount of money and income from SS and some annuities, but if she does live 10 more years, those annuities will be depleted and so will her savings. She will not be able to afford to stay; SS will never cover her rent.
It keeps me up at night. We are already paying for half my MIL's assisted living. How will we ever afford to help both?
It's terrible to find yourself hoping your mom doesn't outlive her money.
States are different. I have a loved one who lives in a similar situation. A one bedroom apartment with only retired people but the rent is capped at ⅓ monthly income (savings don't count). We can treat our elderly with dignity. We just have to be willing to pay for it and vote for politicians who are willing to enact it. Children, elderly, people with special needs, etc. it frustrates me to no end how we'll just throw them aside so our taxes can be just a little bit lower.
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The article makes it sound like someone bought the place and jacked up the monthly maintenance fee by $5000 just because “fuck you.”
Well, given that they bought in under the lump-sum + maintenance model and have somehow been "upgraded" to the rental model, that's exactly what happened. It would be like buying a home and then the old owner coming back and saying, "you know what, I could get more money renting this place - you have to pay rent now." These people likely sold their house and used that money to buy into the community - essentially paying for the right to use the building until they die. It's common in CCRC facilities (continuing care retirement community). You essentially pay for the plant and then pay maintenance, and they guarantee that they will have a spot for you in their care facility as you need more assistance (Independent living -> Assisted Living -> Nursing and/or Memory Care - Hospice). It's much like a reverse mortgage in that you "buy" your "home" and get to live in it until you die, at which point the deed is turned over with your heirs getting nothing. Except that in this case you don't get a monthly payment; instead you pay a fee for the facility services which is free of a rent cost. As you move up in care, the fee gets larger to cover the additional services (additional meals, personal assistance, and ultimately nursing care), but it's just for utilities and services - your payment covers the physical buildings. As you move up, people behind you buy in and that money is used for (CEO bonuses) maintenance and updates to the buildings. Many of these are "non-profits" so the extra money technically isn't for profit, but there are lots of corporate mouths to feed in CCRCs and they find ways to distribute the money.
The article makes it sound like someone bought the place and jacked up the monthly maintenance fee by $5000 just because "fuck you."
That's exactly what they did though. It's like buying a lifetime app purchase and then a few months later the app goes subscription based and demand you pay more, except this is people's shelter.
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Good and recent episode of freakonomics covers private equity firms
https://open.spotify.com/episode/12j1heah9A4FCTzdkH5OS8?si=CItpqhUWTOWjL80mX4wk-g
thanks for the link, looks interrsting
From lunch to happy hour, neighbors in the western suburbs love nay excuse to be social, but one group of best friends is breaking up.
If they can't bother to copy edit their lede paragraph, I'm not reading the article.
I've seen so many simple mistakes and misspellings on supposedly serious news websites recently. Are journalists not taught basic writing and proofreading skills anymore?
That's the job of the editor. Which news mills like these don't really have.
No time for that as must get the story up for the clicks! Oh, and the pay is pitiful so they are all working a half dozen stories and perhaps ghost writing a book or two just to get by.
Man I just read that post about lead/led/lede/LED.
👍
What's with all the news from Chicago in this community?