A first-of-its-kind investigation reveals that seniors with memory problems are walking away unnoticed from assisted-living facilities paid to keep them safe — and many are dying.
In early 2023, The Post embarked on a line of coverage looking at the nation’s booming and poorly regulated assisted-living industry, recognizing the crushing costs of late-life care and the tide of baby boomers approaching an age when they can no longer live independently. Health reporter Christopher Rowland began writing about myriad problems in the industry — including sudden evictions and the appearance of assisted-living shelters for the homeless — drawing a huge audience hungry for information. Investigative reporter Peter Whoriskey soon joined Rowland and discovered that assisted-living facilities — which many families were ruining themselves to afford — routinely let residents with memory problems wander away. Many were dying from exposure.
Online searches for news articles turned up dozens of heartbreaking incidents. These facilities — which cost $6,000 a month on average — were failing at a basic level to keep residents safe. The Post pulled the entire business investigations team onto the project, producing a package of stories that quantified a problem hiding in plain sight and illuminated the lack of federal oversight, the patchwork of weak state regulations and the startling lack of transparency for people trying to choose a safe facility.
The Post also probed how growing corporate ownership in this burgeoning industry leads to understaffing, which lies at the heart of the loss of life. Horrifying surveillance video we obtained from one such facility offers a vivid testament to this national tragedy. It shows the death of a 97-year-old woman who wandered away from a Colorado facility on a freezing night and returned to bang fruitlessly on its locked door.
