Analyst Note
| Kevin Brown |Occupancy for the senior housing industry has come under significant pressure due to the coronavirus pandemic. The senior population is among the most at risk in the pandemic, so any case of the virus among residents or staff will cause an entire facility to shut down. A quarantined facility can't accept new residents, and the relatively high turnover rate of residents leads to a rapid occupancy decline if the facility is forced to stop accepting new residents for even a short time. The recent development of a vaccine is promising news, but it will take several quarters to fully roll out any vaccine to the entire senior population. Therefore, the senior housing industry is likely to experience occupancy declines through mid- to late 2021.