The audit your salesperson hopes you never run.
A free, California-first directory of every licensed assisted-living facility — with the inspection violations, complaint history, and price ranges the referral sites won’t show you. Built from public state records. No phone-share. No paid rankings. No salespeople.
“Popular assisted-living referral service A Place for Mom glosses over neglect — more than a third of its highest-rated homes have been cited for substandard care.”
Washington Post · 16.05.2024Every facility, every citation, every price — on one page.
Showing 30 of 30 facilities — sorted by Care Audit Score, descending.
A rubric you can read, posted on the record.
Each Type A citation costs 25 points.
Type A is the state’s designation for citations involving immediate risk of harm — medication errors, elopement, failure to investigate abuse. We weight these the heaviest.
22 CCR § 87761 · −25 each
Each Type B citation costs 8 points.
Type B citations are procedural or moderate — expired TB clearances, posted-rule omissions, late records. We count them, but lighter, because they’re common in well-run facilities.
22 CCR § 87761 · −8 each
Substantiated complaints cost 10.
CDSS investigates every complaint and labels the outcome. Substantiated ones reflect real, verified problems — even when no citation followed. We surface them too.
CDSS COMPLAINT FILE · −10 each
Clean records earn time bonuses.
A facility with no citations in the last 24 months gains 5 points; 36 months earns 10. We reward sustained cleanliness because one bad year doesn’t define a facility forever.
TIME WINDOW BONUS · +5 / +10
Every facility we have, colored by score.
Compare three, side by side.
Tap any field to swap a facilityWe will never share your contact info with a facility. We will never take a referral fee from one.
THE WEDGE · THE WHOLE PRODUCT · THE PROMISE
If a citation lands, we’ll tell you.
Picked a facility? Worried about the one your parent is already in? Add it to your watch list. We’ll email you the day any new inspection, citation, or substantiated complaint hits the CDSS record.
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Common questions.
Everything families ask before they call a facility. Plain-language answers, cross-checked against the public California regulatory record.
What is an RCFE in California?
RCFE stands for Residential Care Facility for the Elderly. It is the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) license category for non-medical assisted-living facilities serving residents 60 and older. RCFEs are inspected by CDSS Community Care Licensing on a recurring schedule and any time a complaint is filed. The state publishes every inspection result, citation, and substantiated complaint in a public record. Care Audit CA surfaces that record in one place.
Are referral sites like A Place for Mom independent?
No. A Place for Mom, Caring.com, SeniorAdvisor, and most other large referral platforms operate on a paid-placement model. Facilities pay a referral fee (typically the first month of rent or 50–100% of one month) for every move-in that originates through the platform. Recommendations and rankings on these sites are influenced by which facilities pay, not by inspection record. Care Audit takes no money from any facility and presents the public inspection record as it stands.
What is the difference between an RCFE and a nursing home?
An RCFE is a non-medical residential setting for elders who need help with daily activities — bathing, dressing, medication reminders — but not 24-hour licensed nursing care. A nursing home (formally a Skilled Nursing Facility, or SNF) is a medical facility regulated by the California Department of Public Health and licensed to provide 24-hour skilled nursing care, often after a hospital stay. Care Audit covers RCFEs only. If your family member needs skilled medical care, you are looking at SNFs, which have a separate inspection record.
How do I read a CDSS citation?
California categorizes citations as Type A (immediate health or safety risk), Type B (less serious but still a regulatory violation), or Deficiency (a procedural shortfall). Type A is the most serious and is shown in red on every Care Audit facility page. A facility with one isolated Type B from three years ago is not the same as a facility with three open Type A citations this year — Care Audit shows the date, severity, and underlying narrative so you can read the pattern, not just the count.
How much does assisted living cost in California?
The 2024 Genworth Cost of Care survey put the California state median for assisted living near $6,250 per month, with the LA, San Francisco, and San Diego metros above $7,000. Memory care is typically 20–30% more. Actual base rent at any individual facility ranges from roughly $3,500 (rural and inland counties) to $12,000+ (high-end coastal). On top of base rent, most facilities charge a level-of-care add-on that scales with the resident’s assessed needs.
Can I sue an assisted-living facility in California?
Yes. California elder law allows civil claims for elder abuse, neglect, and wrongful death against RCFEs, and the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act (Welfare and Institutions Code §15600 et seq.) permits enhanced damages and attorneys’ fees in serious cases. If you suspect harm, your immediate move should be a complaint to the CDSS Community Care Licensing regional office and a consultation with a licensed California elder-law attorney. Care Audit is not a law firm and the citation record on this site is not a substitute for legal advice.
How often is the Care Audit data updated?
CDSS publishes its public inspection record continuously. Care Audit pulls and reconciles that record on a recurring schedule and flags any newly added citation, complaint, or license change within 24 hours via the Monitor feature above. If you want to be notified the moment something new lands on a specific facility, add it to your watch list.
Is this site affiliated with any government agency?
No. Care Audit is an independent editorial publication by Alumniyat, a small US-registered studio. The data we surface comes from the California Department of Social Services’ public Community Care Licensing record, but we are not CDSS, not California state government, and not endorsed by either. We surface their data in a more usable form; the authority and the original source remain theirs.