Find licensed assisted living
Whether you’re looking for yourself or for someone you care for, start with the homes the state has licensed, and what its inspectors found there. We list homes straight from state licensing records — so far Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, Texas and Washington — including small homes.
Prices: Assisted living prices aren't published by states; ask each home for a written fee schedule.
PlanScout is not a placement or referral agency and isn't paid by any home. How we make money
What assisted living is
A place to live with meals, help with bathing, dressing and medicines, and someone on hand day and night. It isn’t a nursing home: there’s no round-the-clock nursing. Find nursing homes →
Small homes
Many states license small homes, often a house with 2 to 6 residents, under their own names (adult family home, family care home). We list them with the larger ones and label each as a small home with its bed count.
The state’s safety record
Where a state publishes its inspection findings, we show them in the state’s own words and scale, with the period and source. We don’t score, rank or sort homes by them.
What assisted living costs
Homes set their own prices, usually a monthly base rate plus charges for each level of care. No state publishes them, so we don’t either, and we don’t estimate. Ask each home for its written fee schedule and what makes the price go up. Medicare doesn’t pay for assisted living; see what Medicare does pay for.
How licensing and inspections work
Each state licenses assisted living under its own names and rules, inspects homes, and investigates complaints. States publish very different things: Florida publishes counts of cited deficiencies for every home, North Carolina its own star rating and penalties, Washington and New Jersey post reports one home at a time, and Texas publishes only statewide totals. The table says which is which.
How to choose
- Check the state still lists the home as licensed — each listing links to the state's own record.
- Read the state's inspection record and the reports behind it. Ask the home what changed after any citation.
- Visit at least twice, once at a mealtime, and talk to residents and their families if they're willing.
- Ask for the fee schedule in writing, including what raises the monthly price as care needs grow.
- Medicare doesn't pay for assisted living. Medicaid waivers, long-term care insurance or VA benefits sometimes pay for the care part, not room and board.
Questions to ask an assisted living home
- What is the monthly base rate, and what's in it? What do levels of care or extra services cost?
- How many staff are awake overnight, and is a nurse ever on site?
- Who manages medicines, and how are mistakes reported to families?
- What happens if their needs grow — when would they have to move out, and how much notice is given?
- Can we see your most recent state inspection report?
- Do you accept Medicaid, now or if their savings run out?
Independent and free
PlanScout is not a placement or referral agency and isn't paid by any home. Nothing here is paid placement, and the order is distance or name, never a payment.
Which states we cover
| State | What we list | Inspections |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | 2,882 homes, 1,426 of them small Assisted Living Facility. AHCA's Florida Health Finder lists every licensed assisted living facility with its inspection counts. | AHCA publishes, for every assisted living facility, how many deficiencies its inspectors cited in each of the state's violation classes over the last five years, plus complaints, sanctions, fines and any active emergency action, and posts the inspection reports. |
| North Carolina | 1,075 homes, 510 of them small Adult Care Home, Family Care Home. DHSR publishes its licensed adult care homes (7 or more beds) and family care homes (2 to 6 beds) as spreadsheets, with the state's star rating. | DHSR gives each home a star rating from 0 to 4 based on its inspections, and lists every penalty it imposed in the last 36 months. Inspection reports are searchable on DHSR's site by facility name. |
| New Jersey | 330 homes, 0 of them small Assisted Living Residence, Comprehensive Personal Care Home, Residential Dementia Care Home, Assisted Living Program. The Department of Health publishes every licensed long-term care facility as a spreadsheet; we keep its four assisted living license types. | The Department of Health posts each facility's routine inspection dates and Statements of Deficiencies on its own site, one facility at a time, so we link to it rather than copy it. |
| Texas | 1,961 homes, 168 of them small Assisted Living Facility (Type A, B or C). HHSC publishes its directory of assisted living facilities with an active license as a spreadsheet, refreshed daily. | HHSC doesn't publish inspection results for each assisted living facility online. It publishes statewide totals of violations (PDF). Ask HHSC Long-term Care Regulation for a facility's inspection reports. |
| Washington | 6,763 homes, 6,212 of them small Assisted Living Facility, Adult Family Home. DSHS's public lookup exports its licensed assisted living facilities and adult family homes. | DSHS posts each license's inspection reports, complaint investigations and enforcement letters on its own lookup site, and its list says whether any are posted. We link to them rather than copy them. |
Sources: each state’s own licensing list and inspection records, linked in the table. An expired or closed license is never shown as active. A license and an inspection record are not a recommendation. Informational only; confirm the license, care and price with the home and the state.
Sources
- Written by
- The PlanScout team. Updated Oct 9, 2026.
- Corrections
- See something wrong? Tell us. We fix confirmed errors within 2 business days and note the change in the page's change log.