“How do you fight the enemy without knowing where it is?” The question posed by Kathryn Sweeney, co-founder and managing partner of Blue Moon Capital Partners LP, underscores the need for senior living communities to have priority access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and adequate testing to battle the COVID-19 virus. “We’re really fighting this battle with very rudimentary and limited tools,” said Sweeney, whose Boston-based firm provides equity exclusively to the seniors housing sector. “We have had inconsistent access to tests in our portfolio. What we’re finding is those operators who are more on the healthcare end of the spectrum have relationships with healthcare professionals such that they are able to access tests more so than operators who are more on the social end of the spectrum,” said Sweeney. Her comments came during an April 9 webinar hosted by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). The hour-long webinar, titled “The Intersection of Operators and the Financial Community in a COVID-19 Environment” and moderated by NIC’s chief economist Beth Burnham Mace, featured two other speakers: Fee Stubblefield, founder and CEO of The Springs Living; and Wendy Simpson, president and CEO of LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC). As …
