A federal housing agency is close to selling a group of nursing homes it took over 18 months ago after the biggest default in the history of a government mortgage insurance program that provides critical support to the nursing home industry, the New York Times reported. The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently reached an agreement with Greystone, a New York real estate finance firm, for the chain of Chicago-area elder care facilities, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The housing agency has managed the chain, Rosewood Care Centers, with the help of a court-appointed receiver since the previous owners defaulted on $146 million in government-guaranteed mortgages. The default raised questions about the department’s oversight of a decades-old mortgage insurance program that backs 15 percent of the nation’s nursing homes. Greystone is a major lender to the nursing home industry, and was servicing Rosewood’s mortgages when the former owners defaulted. HUD solicited bids for the Rosewood facilities — a dozen nursing homes and one assisted living center — until the end of May, but since then it has repeatedly declined to disclose the name of the prospective buyer or the purchase price. According to court filings, there were four bids for the properties, which the department had valued at $95 million. The department has spent nearly $30 million since August 2018 to make up for shortfalls in funding at the Rosewood facilities and to pay for repairs.
