Some seniors in assisted-living facilities at Culpepper Garden may be able to stay even after supportive services are phased out next year.
The nonprofit running the senior-housing community is exploring moving eligible residents into independent-living areas, using a combination of new services and family support, president Marta Hill Gray told the Arlington Commission on Aging.
“We are looking into every possible remedy,” she said at the July 21 commission meeting.
At the moment, however, she said she’s not sure how feasible it would be for some residents to make this shift. The organization has hired a geriatric-care firm to assess the situation of each of the roughly 70 residents impacted, seeking to determine the best options available, Gray said.
The Arlington Retirement Housing Corporation, which has operated Culpepper Garden since it opened in 1975, announced in late June that it would phase out assisted-living facilities, which it added in 2000.
That part of the complex would revert to independent-living facilities, the organization said, citing the financial drain of providing assisted-living care to low-income seniors.
As part of the 2026 restructuring, Culpepper Garden plans to increase support services for residents in independent living. That, coupled with outside assistance, might make it possible for some assisted-living residents to stay.
“We are talking to various organizations that could be supportive,” Gray said.
Most likely, the option to move from assisted living to independent living would only be available to Culpepper Garden residents with the least complex medical needs.
Since the June announcement, leaders there have told families of residents in assisted living that the decision to shutter those facilities is final. No matter what, many people receiving assisted-care services will probably still need to relocate.
“As much as we want to make it all better, we have to do this in a measured way and a calculated way as we work our way through this in the best way we know possible,” Gray said.
The July 21 presentation to the Commission on Aging was for informational purposes and commission members had no questions after Gray concluded.
Earlier in the month, County Board members had expressed concern about the closure. But they also suggested that, given Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement levels for assisted-living services, it had become untenable for Culpepper Garden and others like it to continue offering them.
“It’s an issue that has been silently emerging over years,” Board Chair Takis Karantonis said on July 19. “It is a wakeup call for everybody.”
