Fires Plague Corporate Assisted Living Facility, Apartment Complex in South Pinellas

This past weekend, a fire broke out at Noble Senior Living at St. Petersburg, located on 54th Ave. N. in Lealman. Though the fire was reportedly put out within minutes, a person was rushed to the hospital and ultimately died as a result of the blaze.

This comes on the heels of a 3-alarm fire earlier this month in Kenneth City at the Ashford Bayside Apartments, where dozens of tenants have been permanently displaced. It was reported that the fire alarm system there failed to sound. Miraculously, nobody was killed. Ashford Bayside is owned by Atlanta-based corporate landlord RADCO, who has filed 135 evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the most of any landlord in Pinellas county. During this same time, the company received nearly $7 million in fully forgivable, taxpayer-subsidized PPP loans designed for small businesses.

We’re here at Ashford Bayside after last night’s fire. The impact is devastating. Some tenants are being told that they will be rehoused in the complex if there’s space or elsewhere if not. The landlord has still not confirmed what started the fire. pic.twitter.com/MwkFU3BoTl

— St. Petersburg Tenants Union (@SPTenantsU) March 3, 2022

Although the official cause of both fires remains to be seen, these incidents should prompt a larger conversation in the community about housing safety, landlord accountability and the inherent failure of the private sector which puts profit before the lives of tenants.

Last night, a fire broke out at Noble Senior Living in Lealman killing one person. Though the cause is unknown, officials say it doesn’t appear suspicious. The 60/yo facility is owned by @CareTrustREIT, and operated by @NobleSeniorS.

🧵1/8https://t.co/HkQ8OL16xn

— St. Petersburg Tenants Union (@SPTenantsU) March 20, 2022

In the case of the Noble Senior Living fire this past weekend, both owner CareTrust REIT & operator Noble Senior Services have an abysmal health and safety record at numerous properties across the country, as noted in an investigation by HuffPost published last year. An REIT is a company which pools the capital of numerous investors, allowing them to profit without having to play any hands-on role or face any personal accountability to the tenants whose homes they maintain autocratic control over. These parasites don’t serve any sort of material function or perform any actual labor themselves. Instead, they partner with for-profit operators, who oversee day-to-day management of the facilities owned by the REIT. These operators cut corners in order to remain competitive and to maximize profits for their stakeholders.

Noble Senior Services, who CareTrust contracts with here in Florida as well as in several other states, has come under scrutiny for a variety of incidents, including attacks against residents, unsanitary healthcare practices, mold, pests and electrical hazards. In March 2021, a tenant at the same facility which caught fire this weekend was raped by another resident there. At a Noble facility in Pensacola last year, a tenant was reportedly beaten to death. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, a Noble facility received 29 citations stemming from 60 complaints alleging resident neglect. One allegation included a nurse cleaning the wound on a resident’s finger with a poorly sterilized box cutter, leaving it looking like “raw hamburger meat”.

 
What makes this more egregious is that both CareTrust and Noble Senior Services receive huge amounts of taxpayer money. As reported by the HuffPost: “CareTrust reported that in 2020, its 200-plus facilities received more than $150 million in various forms of federal COVID-19 aid, including aid from a $100 billion fund established by the CARES Act for health care providers that lost revenue or incurred costs because of the pandemic''. According to their website, Noble Senior Services benefits from the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) as well as other unspecified “government programs”.

The invisible hand of the free market not only fails to guarantee safe housing for all people but the profit motive actually makes housing less safe, especially for the working class. The corporate dictators who control our living spaces will never voluntarily sacrifice massive profit growth, which is gained at the expense of our human rights. When these parasites are heavily subsidized on the taxpayer dime, like RADCO, CareTrust and Noble Senior Services, it becomes clear that the whole system is a complete racket. Housing justice will never be possible unless we fight to make this basic need one that is Democratically controlled by the people, and eliminate the role of useless profiteers who are literally killing us and keeping us poor.