Senior Living Operators Stand Firm On Diversity, Inclusion As Other Companies Backtrack

Some big companies across the U.S., not to mention the federal government, are backtracking on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Senior living operators are not following suit.

In 2025, companies and organizations including Major League Baseball, Amazon, Google, Goldman Sachs and Target have rolled back or watered down programs meant to uplift and celebrate diversity. That has come amid a wider backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion from the federal government, which has directed its agencies to purge content it deems related to DEI and investigate and “end” DEI practices in private companies.

While senior living companies and organizations still can do much more to support and attract people from all walks of life, including adding more support for gay and trans workers and residents, the industry largely has not joined the public pushback to DEI.

Some companies, including Target, have run into a different kind of backlash related to their anti-DEI stances. And in 2025, senior living CEOs are watching these examples – and waking up to the fact that upholding resident and worker diversity, equity and inclusion is “inescapable,” according to Marvell Adams Jr., co-founder of W. Lawson Company, a firm that specializes in developing inclusion strategies for companies.

“It’s inescapable not because of just who we’re serving, but also who we’re asking to do the serving,” Adams said.

Senior living operators are not only resisting efforts to back away from DEIB efforts, they also are expanding them. Wilsonville, Oregon-based Arete Living is piloting an ambassador program meant to support and boost inclusion. The effort won Kenny Dew, area finance manager for Arete Living, a DEIB Champion accolade in the Senior Housing News Prism Awards.

“The goal is to have people in different roles, life experiences and passions really come together and collaborate on something that that ladders up to our core value of a culture of respect, belonging and celebration of diversity. That’s one of our seven company core values,” Dew said.

‘Right things for the right reasons’

Senior living operators are advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in a number of ways in 2025.

Arete Living has spotlighted Black History Month with themed colors for spreadsheets distributed amongst the accounting department for business office managers, and staff wear pins to indicate they are as LGBTQ+ allies. The efforts allow staff members to “feel empowered to act” and they are energized by the recognition they are seeing, Dew said.

Arete Living has no intentions of slowing down those efforts, Dew noted. Last year, the company doubled its budget for initiatives based on the level of impact seen from the efforts, and he hopes others in the industry will follow suit.

“My personal belief is that’s going to become more and more important as we find people that are placing a priority on the social aspects and core value aspects of aligning with an organization, let alone a senior living company,” he said. “I certainly hope that our peers are going to recognize the value in that.”

Meridian, Colorado-based Christian Living Communities uses what it calls a “CLC citizenship” model to foster a sense of belonging among residents and staff, according to President and CEO Jill Vitale-Aussem. The program guides residents and team members to “see themselves as engaged citizens” and celebrate what makes each person unique, Vitale-Aussem said.

“We believe that staying focused on our guiding principles results in doing the right things for the right reasons,” she said. “At its core, when done well, senior living is about community building.”

Some companies, such as Watermark Retirement Communities, have taken steps to work with consultants and maintain LGBTQ+ accreditation with at least 80% of its staff trained through a training program to increase curriculum regarding cultural competency and inclusion offered by SAGECare, which has credentialed more than 1,000 senior living facilities nationwide.

While the industry has made strides, Vitale-Aussem said there is still age-related ableism regarding residents the industry needs to change. In some CLC communities, residents are working in groups to create a culture where people living with dementia are not excluded.

Vitale-Aussem believes the program has paid off in the form of increased occupancy rates and waiting lists for communities, lowered turnover rates and accolades in programs such as the Barrett Values Assessment’s World’s Best Culture award.

‘We’re going to have a problem’ if DEI ignored

Senior living companies are grappling with how to best support senior living employees and residents, and they are fooling themselves if they think they can do that without upholding diversity, equity and inclusion. That can be measured in an uptick for DEI-related consulting services that W. Lawson and other similar companies have seen.

Another such company is Maximum Communications, which consults and strategizes with executives on issues such as DEI initiatives. On that issue, she believes the industry has a “long way to go.”

“If we can’t figure out how to attract prospective residents who want to live in multicultural communities that are inclusive in all ways … we’re going to have a problem,” King said.

The response to Arete’s DEIB initiatives has been great so far, according to Dew, and moving forward is going to become more important as residents and staff recognize they will be safe with the organization.

SAGE, an organization that provides LGBTQ+ consultancy training and credentialing through its SAGECare unit, has seen no shortage of enthusiasm for DEI among the companies it works with, which include Watermark, Inspir Carnegie Hall, Embassy Row and Kendal at Ithaca. The organization also has experienced a small decline in the rate of new clients at the same time, according to Sadiya Abjani, SAGE’s director of learning and instructional design.

While that stems from a nuanced set of circumstances, the bottom line is that there is still much more ground to make up on the issue of DEI, especially as it relates to gay, trans and gender nonconforming older adults and workers. Almost two-thirds of LGBTQ+ seniors are afraid that they could be refused treatment or refused or discriminated against for being gay, according to Pam Bolton, managing director of social enterprise at SAGE. Fear of discrimination rises to 90% among transgender older adults contemplating a move to new housing, she added.

Bolton added across the country, there have been 662 bills that would impact trans and gender nonconforming people in negative ways, and proposed federal cuts to Medicaid could cause DEI-committed organizations to lose access to resources, resulting in LGBTQ+ elders losing essential services.

“With so much pressure coming from the administration, I think companies are really concerned,” Bolton said.

Still, Adams said he believes the industry is holding its ground and moving in the right direction with regard to DEI.

“I think we are heading in a more inclusive direction, in part, due to that being a want amongst some working in organizations, a need among some that are looking to be able to retain good people,” Adams said. “From a strategic perspective, we’ve seen it at the board level.”

The post Senior Living Operators Stand Firm on Diversity, Inclusion as Other Companies Backtrack appeared first on Senior Housing News.