Retirement Homes

When USC graduate student Shaun Rushforth wants his gerontology studies to come to life, all he has to do is open the door to his East Hollywood apartment and walk down the hallway. The very quiet hallway. That's because Rushforth and two other USC students are the youngest residents (by at least four decades) at Kingsley Manor Care Center, a facility that otherwise houses 260 senior citizens in various stages of independence and nursing care.

IT started out as a gag, a literary riff on aging gays and lesbians who flock to retirement homes built just for them. Armistead Maupin toyed with the idea when he began writing "Tales of the City" back in the 1970s, and his imagination ran wild: No one would be allowed to wear golf clothes; Broadway sing-alongs were mandatory.

The first retirement home for the deaf in Northern California has ended up taking mostly hearing seniors, frustrating the project's organizers, who hoped for a deaf-only enclave.

In the latest allegations of poor treatment for veterans, the Pentagon said Thursday it was investigating conditions at a veterans' retirement home in the capital.

It was an act of bravery on an unusual scale: Thirteen Los Angeles police officers repeatedly entered a fire-engulfed retirement home, kicking down locked doors and navigating smoke-choked hallways to rescue 80 senior citizens.

Fire broke out at a retirement home complex in Richmond, killing two women and injuring 11 other residents, fire officials said. Several of those taken to hospitals suffered life-threatening injuries, Richmond Fire Marshal Keith Vida said.

Merrill Gardens, a closely held owner of senior-housing sites, agreed to buy six retirement communities in Northern California for $126 million to expand its holdings on the West Coast.

Sunset Hall, the struggling Mid-Wilshire district retirement home for aging leftists, voted Saturday to pursue options for remaining open that include talks with a Los Angeles businessman who has offered to save the facility.