Senior Housing Properties Trust Appoints Jeffrey P. Somers as an Independent Trustee

Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH) today announced that Jeffrey P. Somers has been appointed as an Independent Trustee to fill a vacancy on its Board of Trustees.

Mr. Somers (age 65) has been a partner of the law firm of Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton, PC of Waltham, MA since 1995, and prior thereto, he was in private law practice as a partner with the law firm of Gadsby & Hannah LLP (now McCarter & English, LLP) of Boston, MA, during which time he also served as Chairman of the Securities Law Committee of the Business Law Section of the Boston Bar Association. Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Somers was a staff attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.

From August 1985 to June 1995, Mr. Somers served as a Trustee of Glover Hospital of Needham, MA (now a division of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital of Boston). He is also active in other civic organizations in the Boston area.

Mr. Somers will serve as a Trustee of SNH until the term to which he is appointed expires at the 2009 SNH annual meeting of shareholders, at which time he is expected to stand for election by SNH shareholders. Mr. Somers has also been appointed to the Audit, Compensation, and Nominating and Governance Committees of the SNH Board of Trustees.

The SNH Board of Trustees vacancy which Mr. Somers will fill was created when Frank J. Bailey resigned from SNH’s Board effective January 30, 2009, in order to accept appointment as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Massachusetts.

Senior Housing Properties Trust is a real estate investment trust, headquartered in Newton, MA which owns 272 senior housing facilities, nursing homes, hospitals and medical office buildings located throughout the United States.