Assisted Living Center Operator Files For Ch. 11 Protection; Future Of Senior Residents Uncertain

In Eugene, Oregon, The Register Guard reports:

• In a last-ditch effort to save his company, Sunwest Management CEO Jon Harder placed himself and 14 individual assisted living centers — including Alpine Court in Eugene — into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In legal maneuvering that unfolded in the waning days of 2008, Harder sought an injunction to stop nine big investment banks from seizing the most profitable of the company’s nearly 270 assisted living centers across the country.

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• While creditors haggle, 16,800 seniors in Sunwest centers around the country — including about 5,000 in Oregon and 600 in Lane County — wait to see how Sunwest’s collapse will affect their housing. [...] The 90-plus foreclosures or receivership actions pending against Sunwest affiliates have “put at risk the well-being of residents at Sunwest-related facilities,” according to court records.

For more, see Assisted living sites face legal challenges Sunwest Management (CEO Jon Harder files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, including Alpine Court).

See also, Statesman Journal: Sunwest tries to halt foreclosure (Founder's bankruptcy filing is effort to protect senior living homes, court papers show):

• [T]he ongoing foreclosures and court judgments threaten to "result in a chaotic free-for-all in which the fastest creditors through the door will grab what they can and run," Harder's attorneys warned in court documents. [...] "This affords, in our opinion, the very best opportunity to have the least disruption to the lives of residents of the retirement facilities," said Stephen English, a Portland attorney who represents Harder.

Go here for other posts on the financially strapped Sunwest Management and its senior care facilities.