The original Hebrew Home at 415 M Street NW

If you talk Washingtonians about long-term care in the area, their responses will likely include the “Hebrew Home in Rockville” (also known as the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington). Either they’ve regularly  passed the community’s 30-acre campus in Rockville, know a friend of loved one who’s lived there or read about it in the newspaper. But I bet that most of these people don’t know that this organization began  a 100 years ago with a young Jewish immigrant helping his elder have a place to live.

In 1910, 22-year old Hymen Goldman  arrived to America with 20 cents in his pocket, but the experience of seeing his elder on the street encouraged to ask his father-in-law to help raise enough money for the man to live in a $3 a week boarding house. That boarding house later became the Hebrew Home’s first location. The home housed fifty older people and a matron who helped them. Today, the organization serves nearly 550 people , making it the largest nursing home in the mid-Atlantic region.

While the location and size may have changed, the tradition of service still remains a cornerstone of the organization’s work. ”There was a sense back then . . . that continues to exist today, that we have an obligation to care for vulnerable members of the community and to take care of our own. ” Hebrew Home CEO Warren Slavin said. Slavin’s statement is reinforced by talking to the people the organization. There’s immigrants, Holocaust survivors and war heroes and thanks to Hymen’s compassion, all of them have a place to call home.

This morning I accompanied our president and CEO, Larry Minnix, to the Washington, D.C., office of Fox Business News. Larry was invited to talk about the business model of continuing care retirement communities (CCRC), a subject that, as Larry noted in a recent blog, has recently received some media coverage from the Wall Street Journal. Fox News was following up on that story and wanted to know more about the potential risks involved with CCRCs.

Larry did a fine job communicating that CCRCs should not be looked at as “risky investments,” but rather a safe, comprehensive approach to retirement living. He pointed out that there is a mere 6 percent default rate for the CCRC sector (1990-2009), which includes roughly 1900 communities in the U.S.

Though a small number of communities have run into financial troubles, a recent report on the CCRC model found that the “great majority” of CCRCs were able to keep their heads above the water during the recent deluge of economic uncertainty. And, those CCRCs that resorted to filing for bankruptcy protection in most cases have done so “without adverse impact to the financial security of their residents.” Larry said that, with one known exception, residents of failed CCRCs have received the money owed to them.

So, are CCRCs risky business for seniors? I think Larry sums it up well: “If I were to make a list of risky things seniors could put their money in, CCRCs would not be on it.”

Let Larry know what you thought by leaving a comment below. He interested in your thoughts about the CCRC model.