This is exactly the sort of thing that we should be taxing the 1% to provide to all working Americans. Well, obviously formerly working Americans, in this case. Every American should be guaranteed a modestly comfortable retirement.

It’s Lawlor, not Lawler.

You have to have serious bank to get into Aegis. Just think what normal seniors have to put up with.

I moved my father to an Aegis memory care facility and I will regret it for the remainder of my life. They sent him, a man with dementia, to the emergency room without even notifying me. I have always been left wondering what else was going on when I wasn't there. This hospital visit ended in his eventual death. He was a sick man and his time was coming but I can't help but wonder if I could have gotten just a little more time with my father if I'd chosen more wisely. I do not often agree with the politics of The Stranger but I am so appreciative of this exposé. Elder care in general is a seedy industry, having been through it with both my parents on different paths, but Aegis is certainly not superior in any way.

I neglected to mention that they also left me on an email chain where one Aegis employee instructed another to reach out to me to discuss hospice. While my father was still in the hospital fighting for his life, and I was still hopeful for his survival.

This some excellent reporting. Thank you

Wow, not a single gratuitous "fuck" or snark at imaginary flying objects. It's almost like...journalism!!!

When Mr. Vel-DuRay's grandmother was living with us, she did very well - still did yard work, and insisted on cleaning the kitchen every night even at 96, but her dementia started getting bad. She had a particularly bad "spell" while visiting a relative in Pierce County, and then her life became hell.

First, she got taken to Good Samaritan, where they decided that she needed to go to a nursing home. She was placed in a truly dismal, horrible, no-good facility in Tacoma (Avamere), which totally broke her. We finally got her into a group home in Edmonds, where she received excellent care for her last days, but she didn't last long.

What made it so hard - in addition to this happening in the midst of Covid - was that that shitty Avamere dump had labeled her "combative", which is apparently a scarlet letter in nursing home circles. I have no doubt that she was combative - she was a survivor of a Soviet labor camp in WWII, and that place gave her flashbacks. She was not allowed to walk, fed garbage, left to sit in her waste, etc.

Mr. Vel-Duray went there everyday, and would bring her laundry home to do. All of her clothes disappeared and she would be put in anything they could get their hands on. And because she had no money, except for a small pension, she got lost in the bureaucracy. For some reason, her being in Pierce Country made it hard (almost impossible) to get her transferred to King County (something about social workers). The group homes were almost as bad as the fancy care facilities. One guy told us point blank that we needed to look for homes in "poorer zip codes".

Her story is not at all uncommon, and It makes me hope for a sudden death during my fast-approaching "golden years". While we have some assets, and both of us have pensions, we are not Aegis rich. And very few people our age are. This is a largely boomer driven phenomenon.

But as long as we insist on fetishizing and underwriting the parasitical wealthy, we will continue to sacrifice our senior citizens.

Years ago, I interviewed with Dwayne to ghostwrite a book for him. His assistant described him as a “big personality,” which should have been the first red flag. He came off as narcissistic and creepy, and also not interested in the book having any scientific basis. They offered me a contract and I showed it to a lawyer, who pointed out all the red flags in it. I’ve thought of this every time I see one of their buildings or ads ever since. And I was sadly unsurprised by this article.

My grandmother (for whom I was the primary caretaker) was in memory care at Aegis Rodger's Park near SPU from 2019 to 2022. It was a mixed bag. She wasn't wealthy, and the monthly price at move-in was a reasonable $4500. But as her needs increased, so did the price. For financial reasons we finally moved her into an adult family home, where she died a few months later.

I asked the Executive Director of Aegis Rodger's Park, "How in the world can residents with advanced dementia afford to live here?" He replied, "Most of them have long-term care insurance."

The long-term care insurance market is collapsing. It will not be available to the next generation of old folks. It will be interesting to see how higher-end assisted living facilities like Aegis fare when most residents have to pay out-of-pocket.

Oh, and part of the "mixed bag" at Aegis Rodger's Park was the staff. They were amazing.

I don't doubt this Clark guy has issues, but should that really matter when I'm looking for a place for an aging relative? It seems to me Aegis is like the other companies in this space. I know from my own family experience that senior housing is very expensive in Seattle. $5k/month for a studio would not be unusual. That includes a lot, e.g. meals in a restaurant style dining room, some housekeeping, a gym with a trainer, a bus and driver for errands and outings, outside speakers and performers that come in, in house activities, etc. But it doesn't include any "assisted living" services. Those could add another $2k-$10k depending on how much help was needed. Costs go down a bit if you go outside the city, but its still pricey if you compare it to basic apartment living.

The second sentence of this article says Aegis is an "assisted living chain that does not accept Medicare" like this is some sort of elitist snub, but Medicare doesn't pay for assisted living services anywhere. Most likely this is a typo and it should say 'Medicaid'. But again, lots of places don't take Medicaid.

The bottom line is its quite expensive to be old in Seattle, particularly if you need help. If you don't have a few hundred thousand in savings and own a paid off home you can rent or sell it might not be doable. The Seattle Times had a good summary article on the finances of all this last fall:

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-area-assisted-living-comes-with-a-crushing-price-tag/

This article actually made me cry. Then it made me angry. It exposes what is all too common when individual, unrepentant greed overrides everything.

Like the obvious con-man he is, this guy oozes phoniness and sleaze to the core. Of course he doesn’t take Medicare or Medicaid, that would mean being regulated by the Federal Government; as he stated “there’s no profit in that”. At the state level, he can unleash his publicists, lobbyists and lawyers who all appear to be working overtime given the endless amount of extremely egregious violations with patients under their care, along with continued abuse and mistreatment of employees. I mean, who uses company resources to actually surveil, harass and intimidate workers. What is this, the CIA? One can only imagine the paranoia and subterfuge inside the corporate culture with upper management that filters downstream.

No amount of fancy artwork, pretend-cool artifacts in the lobby, treehouses in the building, company trips on yachts nor Lamborghinis and Ferraris lined up at the Christmas party could ever sway a discerning employee who would see right through all this cliched bs; curated like a bad B movie in which this dude is the star.

The hackneyed parlance used during interviews and meetings where his inflated sense of self is on full display is nauseating. His stories are pure fiction and his do-gooder crap about being charitable is nothing more than a ploy to appear altruistic. The audacious disregard for patients is actually heartbreaking.

While no “line worker” is ever going to be part of his world of 1980’s tacky sports cars, ugly yachts and exotic travel his conspicuous consumption notwithstanding, why are they being implored to donate parts of their below living-wage paychecks to fund his charities, while he gives pennies, comparatively and then takes the glory. This. The height of hypocrisy.

Stop with the ostentatious show-boating and pay your workers a fair wage, stop the intimidation tactics and keeping your very expensive lawyers on speed dial. The sheer amount of lawsuits and penalties paid out could be used to improve safety, and quality of care at the patient level first and foremost. Rampant greed and egotism does not make the correlation, apparently.

These facilities should be investigated to the fullest extent. The most vulnerable population is at risk. However, I am reminded that the very wealthy are oftentimes the most victimized by just these kinds of predatory vultures. Their mantra: drain the bank accounts, sell the homes and bamboozle wealthy family members into believing that because they are paying top dollar for a “luxury” facility, somehow they are getting that. The opposite is usually true. A grift of epic proportions, with dire consequences.

Why are these facilities still operating and how and why are they winning awards? Follow the money.

If you have a story you'd like to share to make Aegis Living accountable, please reach out to us at contact@aegislivingrecord.com!

Did you mean to say that Aegis doesn’t accept Medicaid? (Assisted living facilities never accept Medicare.)

I am deeply grateful for this expose. My father is currently living at Aegis and I am seeking to have him removed promptly. Aegis is a mirage. It entices both residents (those who can consent) and caregivers/loved ones desperate to find care for their aging loved ones. This transition from an elderly person's beloved home and their years of autonomy to the loss and grief of moving away from their familiar surround is "apparently" softened by the mask of opulent buildings and finely appointed interiors. It provides, at best, a temporary salve for the older adult and family members or loved ones who, also, are vulnerable to the loss and grief of the decline and loss of autonomy endemic to aging and memory loss. But this is no sanctuary- it is masterfully constructed rouse using psychological tactics to entice those in a desperate state to believe they have found a safe oasis for their final years.

Once you place your deposit and get your room- enticed by the "fabulous" sales person who has turned your nightmare of removing your parent from their home and dropping them off in a strange environment- the mask begins to morph into the real face of Aegis. Aegis begins to increase the fees. In my dad's case- they charged him for services they did not provide either adequately or at all. They charge for services that a demented resident is unable to consent to. My father has had unexplained bruises, multiple unexplained falls, food all over his clothes and face despite being fed by staff, poop under his nails, inadequate grooming resulting in needs for specialty care- charges that come out of his hard earned money he so frugally saved his entire adult life.

Discussions with management and upper management have resulted in successively being paid by lip service, feigning concern for my father and making promises to remedy neglect. They even called APS on themselves in the case of my father and then, repeated the same neglect just months later despite multiple meetings to address the first noted incident of neglect in the first place.

I regret keeping my father here for the length of time I have. There have been some good-hearted staff but they do not tend stay long and most of them, I can't blame for leaving for they are undertrained and underpaid to offer the quality of service profoundly needed to our beloved elderly population who deserve respect and dignity, to their minds AND bodies, as they lose their faculties day by day.

Aegis should be ashamed.