New energy benchmarking and reporting requirements requiring use of ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager are soon going into effect as cities, counties and states in North America work to reduce environmentally harmful emissions and combat global warming. Examples include: Montreal, QC. A city bylaw supporting the Climate Plan’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2050 requires owners of large buildings to disclose the sources and amounts of energy their buildings use. This information will help the city understand greenhouse gas emissions from its commercial, institutional and large multi-unit residential sectors and develop programs to improve buildings’ energy performance. The bylaw went into force this year for any building with a floor area of at least 15,000 square meters that is not exclusively residential and for any city-owned building of 2,000 square meters or more. The bylaw’s criteria will expand in 2023 and 2024. The program will “reduce buildings’ energy costs by improving energy consumption [and] show that Montreal building owners are leaders in energy transition, a major competitive advantage in the real estate sector,” the city says. Honolulu County, Hawai’i. An ordinance enacted in July established a Better Buildings Benchmarking program that requires large commercial and multifamily buildings in Honolulu County, which encompasses the island of O’ahu, to benchmark and report their energy and water usage annually. The requirement begins in June 2023 for buildings 100,000 square feet and larger, then phases in smaller buildings over 2024 and 2025 as part of a goal to achieve net negative emissions by 2045. With the building sector accounting for about one-third of O’ahu’s greenhouse gas emissions, “this benchmarking program is expected to reduce the electricity consumption of large buildings by nearly 7% by 2030 and curb greenhouse emissions on the island,” according to the county’s website. New Jersey. Under a state law enacted in 2018, commercial buildings over 25,000 square feet will be required to benchmark their energy and water usage annually. The deadline for initial reporting, using data from the 2022 calendar year, is Oct. 23, 2023. This action is “critical to increasing the transparency of this usage and consumption and to promoting market-driven increases in energy efficiency. It also elevates the public’s understanding of energy usage, allowing consumers to make well-informed decisions,” according to New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program. Yardi, the 2022 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award winner, helps hundreds of commercial building operators across North America benchmark energy and water in thousands of buildings annually. See how Yardi Pulse Energy Benchmarking simplifies ENERGY STAR data collection, reporting and certifications. The Yardi Energy team stands ready to help building owners benefit from the industry’s most advanced energy management technology and stay up to date on evolving reporting...

We always keep an eye out for unique initiatives driven by our senior living clients. Lucky for us, those are never in short supply! Today we’re featuring an inspiring program created by Pacifica Senior Living, Tech Tuesdays, which aims to help residents navigate technology (and find enjoyment through it, too). Pacifica shared an entire blog post with all the details, but see below for a highlight:   Pacifica’s Tech Tuesdays   As Pacifica says, the world of technology is constantly growing. Seniors are exposed to more and more systems used to complete daily tasks, communicate with others and even find entertainment.  That’s why Pacifica devotes Tuesdays to helping residents with any and all technology tasks, from operating video chats to social media platforms and telehealth visits. Another main driver for the program — Tech Tuesdays — is to help seniors learn the ins and outs of technology in an unintimidating environment. Residents are offered support with platforms like Zoom, Facetime and more. In addition to assisting seniors with tech-related needs, Pacifica also encourages residents to find the fun in technology. Wii bowling, virtual reality adventures, you name it — residents have varying entertainment options each week. So for Pacifica residents who may not feel tech savvy, this program offers an opportunity to learn something new, all while bonding with fellow residents and staff. How neat is that? Read more on Pacifica’s Tech Tuesdays. Learn about Pacifica Pacifica Senior Living builds their communities with residents’ lifestyles in mind. Offering personalized plans for each senior that comes through the door, Pacifica takes a customizable approach to care with options in independent living, assisted living and memory care. We’re proud to help Pacifica serve residents with our senior living solutions, including resident-facing platforms like RentCafe Senior Living. Learn more about how Yardi technology serves operators and their residents. Once again, shout out to Pacifica for their endearing program that helps residents live their best lives. Get more details on Pacifica’s Tech...

Moving To Work (MTW) was a groundbreaking policy moment for HUD in 1996. Through MTW, HUD selected a small group (or cohort) of public housing agencies (PHAs) for the chance to create their own programs using HUD money. Gabrielle Van Horn speaks at NAHRO last month. The only caveat to these MTW programs was the they must accomplish specific goals set by HUD, including: Finding better ways to use federal funds with emphasis on reducing costs and improving effectiveness and availability of servicesHelping households improve economic self-sufficiency through incentives for participation in job training, education or job search activitiesIncreasing the availability and selection of housing resources for low-income households As a Demonstration Program, HUD share successes and challenges that each PHA participating in MTW experiences. So, MTW is not just a chance for PHAs to help their local communities, but also help other PHAs craft programs that may work elsewhere. MTW’s recent expansion is an opportunity for more agencies to participate in creating and testing innovative housing policies that can revolutionize the subsidized housing industry. That makes this a great time to check in with Gabrielle Van Horn, director of PHA support for Yardi, to get her perspective on MTW’s history and future. Gabrielle, tell us about Yardi’s first involvement with MTW. Our experience goes back more than two decades, all the way back to 2000. From the beginning, we’ve had MTW clients working with programs falling under the categories of administrative efficiencies, rent reform, work requirements and incentive programs. Collaboration with our customers in program design and our working experience with HUD programs have helped make our customers’ visions come to life. Yardi is honored to partner with some of the most progressive agencies in the country. About half of the original MTW agencies are Yardi clients, so we were well positioned to work on the expansion phase of MTW. We have clients in each cohort. We took the initiative to engage with them as soon as possible so that we could support their newly designed programs and make sure they could track data for accounting, household demographics, changes in income and other key information. How does Yardi help track control groups? To me, HUD’s requirement of control groups is one of most interesting components of the MTW Expansion guidelines. Control group data can be quite helpful in testing program design. Tracking non-participating households alongside those that are part of MTW designed programs makes it possible to prove the effectiveness of locally designed programs. That proof will go a long way in the future of public policy design. That’s why Yardi has ensured that control group tracking is a key component of our custom programming for MTW Expansion rent reform clients. Can you give us an update on how Yardi is supporting MTW Expansion 50058s? This is a new 50058 form and a new file format. We’ll be using new technology to submit these 50058s to HUD to HIP (Housing Information Portal). We have been testing and providing feedback to HUD since they first opened their original testing site to vendors. As soon as HUD is ready, we’ll have the interfaces in place to submit them electronically. One of the greatest benefits of having a longstanding relationship with HUD is the trust that we are doing our part. That means that our clients feel comfortable and confident knowing we have designed features that will reflect their vision and meet HUD’s compliance requirements. What do you think is the most exciting cohort? I am very excited about the Landlord Incentives cohort. Finding ways to make the program more appealing to landlords is critical to the future of the Housing Choice Voucher program. Are you prepared for the next MTW cohort? Yes. We have a team of programmers and support staff ready for the next programs that come from our clients. But, here’s an even better question: is the next...

Have you read about the Best of the Best Awards — an initiative spearheaded by Argentum? The awards recognize innovative new programs in senior living and you guessed it, the 2022 winners are in! We’re pleased to recognize Benchmark Senior Living and Senior Lifestyle (our wonderful Yardi senior living clients), for earning a place on the Best of the Best list. Read on to learn about their award-winning programs. About Argentum Best of the Best Awards Released in a recent edition of Argentum’s Senior Living Executive resource, the Best of the Best Awards recognize programs, products and services that are improving the future of senior living. More specifically, those that solve a particular challenge or advance excellence in the industry. A total of six senior living organizations were recognized by Argentum this year, including Benchmark Senior Living and Senior Lifestyle. Award winner: Benchmark Senior Living Need inspiration for your onboarding department? Look no further! Benchmark Senior Living earned a place on the Best of the Best list for their Virtual General Orientation program, a hybrid learning model in which in-person instruction supplements online sessions. The program is offered weekly for new hires across the company. According to Benchmark, a key benefit of the program is time savings. To accommodate new hires before, staff members often spent hours planning and delivering live programming, which took time away from other pressing initiatives. With the new-and-improved blend of virtual and in-person onboarding, Benchmark now saves over 500 hours of staff labor each week. The program also helps Benchmark ensure their onboarding content is consistent across time and location, and gives new hires the opportunity to engage with staff from other communities in a virtual setting. Read more about Benchmark’s Virtual General Orientation program. Award winner: Senior Lifestyle In an effort to enhance diversity efforts, Senior Lifestyle launched their Better Together initiative — the program that earned their place on the Argentum Best of the Best list. Better Together includes educational programs that showcase diverse individuals, holidays and cultures each month within Senior Lifestyle communities. And to create the themes for each month-long program, Senior Lifestyle brought together community leaders and residents for brainstorming sessions. This resulted in creative ideas like a monthly calendar equipped with resources, games and celebration ideas to accompany each theme. At its core, Better Together creates a space in which people of different backgrounds feel represented. What better way to improve the community experience for Senior Lifestyle staff and residents? Read more on Senior Lifestyle’s launch of Better Together.  Read more From us here at Yardi, congrats to both Benchmark Senior Living and Senior Lifestyle! We love celebrating your innovation and dedication to making the industry a better place. Be sure to explore Argentum’s Senior Living Executive resource for more on the Best of the Best Awards. If you’d like more information on how Yardi supports our senior living clients, read our Senior Living Suite infographic to start....

Real estate represents stability and remains a cornerstone investment option in an era of increasing economic uncertainty, according to the inaugural WMRE Institutional Investor Survey of real estate industry participants across the U.S. The survey was sponsored this year by Yardi and originally published by WMRE magazine. As a measure of the industry’s standing as an investment asset, more than 90% of respondents to the survey – which canvassed high-net-worth family advisors, private real estate investors, pension fund managers, institutional investors and life insurance companies – anticipate holding or increasing their real estate allocations. Just 7% anticipate that institutions will reduce such allocations. Instability in the stock and bond markets has spurred investors to value real estate for its status as a stable asset, a portfolio diversifier, a hedge against inflation and a steady source of income. “Real estate tends to be less volatile and more consistent” than stocks and many other assets, the report notes. Multifamily, industrial widely favored The survey also reveals institutional investors’ favored real estate markets, with multifamily (preferred by 67% of respondents), industrial (47%) and data centers (36%) leading the way. The $154.6 billion in multifamily sales in the first half of 2022 represented about 41% of all property transactions in that period, with industrial coming in second with $74.6 billion. The office and retail sectors were rated favorably by 14% and 12% of survey respondents, respectively, reflecting the reduced need for central physical work locations during the pandemic. Broadening geographic focus Whereas institutions traditionally favored the six gateway cities – San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Washington and Chicago – investment activity now encompasses some 25 other top markets, principally Sun Belt areas with more affordable living. Growing metros previously considered secondary, such as Phoenix, Seattle and Denver, are receiving more attention from investors. “What COVID did was really rip off the cover and accelerated the movement of … institutional money to those places where people were already moving,” Jeff Adler, vice president of Yardi Matrix, notes in the report. Investment tech’s role expands Although only 35% of survey respondents use an investment management system to calculate promotes, waterfalls and other structures, “a number of factors are driving technology further into the industry,” the report says, including growing demand from institutional clients for real-time data and analytics. This set of expectations has given rise to automated investment management systems that connect information from the asset level through the investment structure to the investment with a previously unattainable degree of efficiency. Other topics covered in the report include: Key factors that influence institutional investors’ allocations to real estate.The investment vehicles most and least in favor among real estate investment managers.Niches within the office world that are impressively outperforming the general office market.The annual rate of return that institutional investors seek from their real estate investments. Get details on these issues and more by downloading the full WMRE...

Yardi announced today that it has acquired Planimetron to help meet the growing demand for efficient space management by office, retail and industrial real estate owners and operators. With an anticipated launch to market in 2023, Yardi will rebuild and rebrand Propidex, Planimetron’s market-leading space management platform, as Space Manager and incorporate it into the Yardi CommercialEdge platform, a full suite of revenue-focused solutions. Planimetron creates visual decision support solutions for commercial and corporate real estate professionals. Since 1983, Planimetron solutions have generated a rich graphical user experience by integrating real estate and spatial data. For more information, visit planimetron.com. Space Manager will allow commercial real estate owners and managers to store, edit and share floor plans and site plans from one centralized location. When combined with CommercialEdge and the Yardi Elevate suite of asset management solutions, Space Manager will provide unprecedented visibility for marketing, leasing, forecasting, facilities and construction operations. “We are excited to welcome the Planimetron team to Yardi,” said Arjun Rao, senior director of commercial for Yardi. “This team brings a wealth of knowledge and experience about commercial real estate, especially with regard to space management within properties. Space Manager will be an exceptional addition to the CommercialEdge suite.” For more information about the CommercialEdge suite, visit...

Ready to energize your business this Fall? Visit the 2022 LeadingAge Annual Meeting + EXPO, an experience bringing experts together to converse, strategize and even form new partnerships. It’s a must-attend event for senior living professionals across the industry. Set for October 16-19, LeadingAge 2022 will host team Yardi at booth 1804. We’re ecstatic to be attending and invite you to come see the newest advancements to our senior living management software. For event details and steps on how to connect with our stellar team, see below. Get ready for LeadingAge 2022 Taking place at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, LeadingAge 2022 offers a customizable experience for attendees. But regardless of which sessions you choose, one thing is certain: you’ll explore critical topics impacting the industry today. And you’ll get to chat with leaders who are shaping the future of senior care. That offers an exciting opportunity to gain fresh perspectives and develop strategies for your own organization. As LeadingAge puts it, progress is made together. You can find registration details on LeadingAge’s website and you can preview the schedule of events as well. Connect with Yardi It’s no secret that technology is playing a big role in senior living today. The right solutions can shift the way your communities operate — and provide care — for the better. Here at Yardi, we offer tools that do exactly that, all of which unite on a single platform. Sound interesting? Stop by booth 1804! If you want a more detailed look at the Yardi Senior Living Suite before the event, get in touch with us.   Here’s to networking, learning and growing at LeadingAge...

Who doesn’t love an event packed with networking, educational sessions and snazzy giveaways? AHCA/NCAL has it all — plus more — during their annual convention. AHCA/NCAL 2022 takes place from October 9-12 in the heart of Nashville, Tennessee. All this in mind, the AHCA/NCAL Convention & Expo is something we wouldn’t miss. We look forward to connecting with a fantastic array of senior living professionals throughout the 4-day summit! If you would like to meet with us, be sure to stop by booth 740. Learn about AHCA/NCAL 2022 ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The American Health Care Association and ​National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) represents long term and post-acute care providers across the U.S., with more than 14,000 member facilities. With such a large national footprint, AHCA/NCAL works to make the industry a better place on every level. And that translates to their annual convention which brings professionals together to discuss the challenges facing senior living today, as well as solutions for the future. AHCA/NCAL 2022 is full of impactful experiences for c-suite executives and community experts alike. Learn more about what’s in store from the AHCA/NCAL 2022 event schedule.   Get in touch with Yardi We make attending events like AHCA/NCAL 2022 a priority, as it allows us to join the conversations most crucial to senior living today. We kindly invite you to visit booth 740 to discuss where the industry is headed and how our senior living management software is here to support you. Feel free to stop by whenever it’s convenient, or fill out our AHCA/NCAL form to get a meeting scheduled.    Enter for a chance to win! Remember the snazzy giveaways we mentioned? If you visit booth 740 at AHCA/NCAL 2022, you can enter for a chance to win some Yardi swag. Simply leave us your business card to join our raffle of Wrapsody Noise Reducing Bluetooth Headphones. See you October...

Have you heard the term “active adult” lately? This buzzword and the meaning behind it was recently discussed in an eye-opening white paper by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC). The report — Active Adult Rental Properties: Defining the Emerging Property Type — seeks to educate the industry and potential investors by defining what active adult living entails. NIC shares never-before-seen property inventories, market trends, financial performance metrics and more. Keep reading for a highlight:   What are active adult properties? Active adult rental properties are age-eligible, market rate, multifamily properties that are lifestyle focused. That’s the definition NIC provides in an effort to clarify — and simplify — what active adult living means. They describe active adult rental properties as those that appeal to younger, healthier and more active older adults, often ages 55+. But how did active adult properties emerge? As NIC puts it, this segment of real estate comes in response to the preferences of a specific generation: baby boomers. Simply stated, baby boomers have lower acuity needs than residents in traditional senior housing environments, and they’re drawn to the lifestyle, convenience and amenities of conventional multifamily living but with residents of their own age cohort. So there you have it, a new style of real estate was born to meet the needs of these boomers — now referred to as active adults.   NIC shares what they refer to as “critical components” of the active adult rentals definition to provide more clarity: Age-eligible: The property must restrict residents based on ageMajority market rate: LIHTC (low-income housing tax credit) properties are excludedMultifamily: Excludes single-family home-only communities (SFH)Rental properties: Excludes for-sale propertiesMeals not included through property operations or base rent: The property does not include meals (lunch or dinner) or allowances/credits for mealsLifestyle focused: Affording the residents a setting and environment that helps them to thriveNot a static definition: The active adult definition and the property type is expected to evolve as the product matures You can read the full white paper for a more thorough breakdown.   More on active adult properties Looking for a more specific depiction of active adult properties? From average configurations to pricing, the NIC report covers it all. One key takeaway is active adult properties are a happy medium between multifamily and senior housing properties. To illustrate that point, NIC shares examples like the fact that active adult properties are designed for shared activities, with more common spaces than conventional multifamily housing, but less than your average senior housing property. Read more from NIC.   Progression of resident needs We’ve covered that active adults have lower acuity needs than today’s seniors. According to NIC, they associate senior housing with residents whose acuity levels are too high for their current lifestyle choice, and they want something different.   You can view their visually-appealing chart in the white paper, where NIC outlines how housing segments progress depending on resident care needs — starting with multifamily and active adult, then ending with skilled nursing and hospitals. Benefits of the active adult market There are several benefits that come with the emerging active adult market, from longer resident tenure to lower expenses. A big point of mention for investors is while active adult properties may be higher risk than those in multifamily, they’re less risky than traditional senior housing communities. The NIC white paper offers more interesting insights, so we encourage you to grab a copy.  Happy learning!...

You may be familiar with our senior living business intelligence solution, Yardi Senior IQ. This integrated system generates data at the click of a button to help operators make smarter, faster decisions. And when operators make informed decisions based on real-time data, senior living residents reap the benefits in the form of enhanced services and care. All that aside, today’s focus is to share the newest advancements Senior IQ has to offer. Read on for a short overview. Senior IQ releases enhanced dashboards and KPIs Starting with the clinical ADL’s dashboard, Senior IQ clients have access to three new KPIs showing resident counts for: Care plans not activated at admissionCare plans not activated quarterlyCare plans not activated annually In the clinical medications dashboard, three new KPIs exist in relation to medication orders. These offer resident percentages by property/care level for the following respective orders: Residents receiving antibiotic medicationRecently started antipsychotic/anxiolytic/hypnoticStarted antipsychotic/anxiolytic/hypnotic by CL For the clinical census dashboard, a single KPI has been added. Titled conversion from respite to permanent, this KPI shows the percentage of residents who have converted from a respite to permanent contract type in the past 12 months. In relation to KPIs that already exist in the clinical census dashboard, new columns have been added in the drilldown grid KPI to show more details. Moving on to the clinical pressure ulcers/injury dashboard, the average length of pressure ulcers KPI has been renamed to average duration of pressure ulcers/injury. Last but not least for KPIs in Senior IQ, an occupancy type filter has been added under dashboard filters, giving clients the option to switch between physical and financial occupancy. Contact us If you’re already utilizing Senior IQ and have questions about the latest functionality, reach out to your sales rep anytime. If you haven’t started your journey with this single connected solution just yet, contact us to learn...