No. 12 Largest Operator Pacifica Senior Living Files For Ch. 7 Bankruptcy 

Senior living operator Pacifica Senior Living has filed for filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The San Diego-based company has total liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million, between one and 49 creditors and total assets of $50,000 or less, according to a March 24 filing in California Southern Bankruptcy Court.

California news publication The Press Democrat first reported the bankruptcy news Wednesday.

Pacifica Senior Living, doing business as Pacifica Senior Living Management LLC, is listed by senior housing trade association Argentum as the country’s 12th largest senior living operator overall in 2024. A total number of communities is not listed by Pacifica online, but the company is estimated to have between 80 to 100 communities, according to past promotional sales and marketing material published online.

The operator ranked as the 10th largest assisted living provider with over 5,255 units and 10th largest memory care operator with 2,776 units by last year’s rankings.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy code, also known as liquidation, is the sale of a debtor’s nonexempt property and distribution of those proceeds to creditors, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and differs from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in that companies must cease operations after declaring it.

The Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing follows a string of legal issues involving Pacifica in recent years, ranging from cases alleging wrongful death to labor law infringements.

Stemming from a lawsuit filed in 2020, Pacifica agreed to pay $140,000 in a settlement to the National Fair Housing Alliance following a complaint alleging the Pacifica Rosemont community denied admission to deaf or hard-of-hearing older adults and did not provide necessary services including American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, court records show.

In 2022, according to court records, Pacifica Senior Living Management LLC and Pacifica Bakersfield were ordered to pay $23 million in damages after a jury found the community was guilty in the wrongful death of a resident.

In a prepared health care impact statement drafted for the California Attorney General’s Office in 2022, it was found that Pacifica’s rate of number of citations per number of beds in residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFSs) was 3.9-times higher than the average facility with similar capacity in California.

In 2024, court records indicate Pacifica was ordered to pay a photographer $6.3 million in statutory damages for unauthorized use of 42 copyrighted images on the company’s website.

Also in 2024, Pacifica was ordered to pay $2.5 million related to the wrongful death of a resident at its Pacifica Bakersfield community.

Representatives for Pacifica did not respond to a request for comment from Senior Housing News as of press time Thursday afternoon.

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