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We’re near the end of the 2025 Changemakers series, honoring a diverse range of visionary leaders who are reimagining senior living. This week we’re sharing insights from Joe Jedlowski, founder, chairman and CEO of Distinctive Healthcare.
In his interview with Senior Housing News, Jedlowski discusses his approaches to adaptability in the dynamic senior living industry. His strategies range from data-informed agility to middle-market development and pricing transparency. Distinctive Healthcare develops, manages and operates 30 senior housing communities across multiple states under the Distinctive Living brand. A recent partnership with Live Well Senior Cottages demonstrates an innovative approach to meeting evolving needs in senior living.
Read on for a snapshot of the conversation. Or, read the full interview with Senior Housing News (SHN).
Meet Changemaker Joe Jedlowski
SHN: Tell us about some of your recent efforts to change the senior living industry for the better. (Please use some examples to help us understand what you did and why.)
Jedlowski: Like many, Distinctive Living has been looking at opportunities to meet the growing middle market and investing in development aimed at building more affordable products and services. In markets that are bringing on average $7,200 a month for senior living, we hope to introduce a product closer to $5,000 while also bringing higher levels of care into our communities.
We’re currently working on a new concept in partnership with Live Well Senior Cottages, which we believe offers a viable solution to the changing preferences and needs of our future seniors.
SHN: Is the senior living industry moving quickly enough to change in the ways it needs to?
Jedlowski: Compared to the hospitality sector, I could argue we are not where we should be. Even as our business is more complex, we are lagging behind when it comes to capital infusion, product development and marketing.
And yet, there’s a catch. Our resilience outpaces other industries. We reinvented senior living operations during the pandemic, adapting to constantly changing state and federal guidelines. We endured a workforce crisis, increased oversight by capital partners and record-high operational costs. Today it is not unusual for a regional operator to have five or more different equity partners, each with unique requirements, priorities and needs.
While the industry has shown remarkable resilience and adaptability, we have yet to prove our competence and capacity for innovation commensurate to expanding demand. There is room for more disruption in our space. We’ve had plenty of time to prepare, but we’ve been slow to infuse the capital required to meet the “tsunami” looming on the horizon.
SHN: What advice do you have for other senior living companies implementing their own changemaking efforts?
Jedlowski: Developing solutions that ease pain points we see on the operations side mitigate the negative side of rapid change. Gathering, collecting and sharing feedback using surveys and other tools help us stay ahead of problems before they become bigger problems. Recognizing the critical role of data and understanding how to leverage it effectively is imperative.
At Distinctive Living, we make decisions based on data points — from staffing decisions to clinical outcomes to investments in technology — all the inputs we believe make a senior housing project successful.
Aligning yourself with capital partners that share the same values as their operating partner and being philosophically aligned are also important. Partnerships within the current day capital structure must be symbiotic to work.
One more 2025 Changemaker to come
The 2025 Changemakers class celebrates trailblazing leaders in the senior living industry. Yardi is proud to sponsor the SHN interview series for the seventh consecutive year.
Our series wraps up this month with one more Changemaker next week. Highlights from all the honored 2025 Changemakers interviews are shared on The Balance Sheet.
