SAN JOSE — When 94-year-old Emma Magnuson moved into her room at an assisted living facility this year, she figured she would stay there for the rest of her life.
Instead, with the holidays fast approaching, Magnuson and the 80 other seniors who live in Atria Chateau Gardens in Willow Glen have suddenly learned they will soon be out of a home.
The center is closing its doors after landlord Westlake Realty Group refused to renew its lease, according to Atria, and indicated there are new — and perhaps more profitable — plans for the two-story building in a quiet, residential neighborhood.
Now Magnuson and her neighbors — some of whom have dementia — and their families will have to search for new homes in a market where options are notoriously expensive and limited. Their plight highlights the unforgiving nature of the Bay Area’s red-hot real estate market, where the ravenous demand for housing and development can lead to the displacement of vulnerable people.
“I don’t like it,” Magnuson said, sitting in the room she moved into three months ago, where she spends hours reading romance novels in a leather armchair by the window. In the bathroom, her collection of costume necklaces hangs in rows on the wall. At mealtimes, she sits next to her best friend, Rhea. “I love it here. Why should I move?”
Magnuson and the other seniors, some of whom have lived at Atria for years, have two months to pack up their things and move out. Management broke the news to residents and their families Wednesday, saying that despite Atria’s best efforts to keep the facility running, Westlake rejected their lease in favor of turning the building into something other than senior housing.
“It’s not a fun thing to have this happen,” Michael Mejia, a senior vice president at Atria Senior Living, said in an interview.,”but now I have to move forward and help my residents and help my staff.”
Westlake executives did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment Friday. The company, a San Mateo-based property management business that owns real estate throughout the Bay Area, has not said publicly what it intends to do with the Atria building after the elderly residents move out.
On Friday, a stream of concerned family members walked in and out of Atria, comforting each other, hugging, and even tearing up as they crossed paths.
Nancy Safford worried about moving her mother, who has just gotten used to life at Atria Chateau Gardens. The move five years ago from her home of half a century into an assisted living facility was traumatic, and Safford suspects a second upheaval won’t be any easier. To make matters worse, the 93-year-old woman has slight dementia and doesn’t understand why she’s being made to move.
“I think it will be really hard on her. Super hard,” Safford said.
Atria staff will work with residents and their families to find new homes for the displaced seniors, and Mejia says he expects all residents who want to stay in San Jose will be able to. Some may move into another property in the Atria chain — the company has 10 other facilities in the Bay Area, including one just two miles from the home about to be shuttered. But that facility can’t fit all 80 residents. Atria has promised to pay its residents’ moving expenses if they relocate to another Atria property, and is working to reach similar deals with other senior living communities.
But landing a spot in a senior living facility, especially one that’s affordable, can be challenging. San Jose’s senior living properties are more than 95 percent occupied — above the national average of about 90 percent, according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, which collects data on senior housing. And such a facility in the Bay Area costs, on average, $4,500 a month, said Mike Scoggin of Oasis Senior Advisors, a consulting business that helps elderly clients and their families find different types of senior accommodations.
“People typically don’t have enough money to afford the places that are available around here,” he said.
Atria charges from $3,375 for a studio to $4,900 for a one-bedroom, said Scoggin, who tracks rates at senior living centers in the Bay Area. But some residents’ families worry their rent will increase with the move. Some also will have to pay a move-in fee equal to one month’s rent — an expense they already paid at Atria, and thought they’d never have to pay again.
In addition to the economic expense, forced moves can be upsetting for seniors, especially those who have lived in one place for years, said Dr. Allen Power, a geriatrician based in Rochester, New York, an author and a professor at Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging. Caregivers at Atria likely have gotten to know the residents and their needs, and developed trust with them, he said. Landing in a new place with strangers to care for them can be traumatic for elderly residents — and may even have a negative impact on their health, Power said.
“It’s a very challenging situation to put people in,” he said.
Some elderly people who undergo sudden moves have been diagnosed with relocation stress syndrome — a condition that leads to symptoms such as anxiety, depression and disorientation.
To help prevent that sort of trauma, California law mandates elder care facilities take certain steps before they shut down to make the move easier for its residents — such as evaluating each resident’s care needs and providing a list of nearby available accommodations that meet those needs. Each facility also must submit a closure plan for state approval. Atria is compiling that plan now, said California Department of Social Services spokesman Michael Weston.
Magnuson’s son-in-law, Glenn Thomas, who teaches classes in social work at San Jose State University, knows the landlord has the right to repurpose the Atria building, but he questions whether it’s the “right” thing to do.
“It seemed so cold — it’s upsetting,” he said. “They’re not just pieces of furniture. They’re real people. And they’re elderly and they’re vulnerable.”
“And at Christmastime …” Thomas added, his voice trailing off.
