Methods
How we built our care home directory
Every licensed home on this site comes from the State of California's public licensing data. Here is exactly where it comes from, what we did to it, and what it cannot tell you.
The source
The California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Division, publishes a file of every residential care facility for the elderly (RCFE) in the state on the California open data portal, under a Creative Commons Attribution license. The extract we use is dated May 25, 2025. The portal updates the file's timestamp often, but when we last checked on October 2, 2026 that was still the newest extract published. We check for a newer extract regularly and rebuild the directory when one appears.
What we include
- Facilities in Los Angeles County with a status of licensed and a capacity above zero: 1,644 homes with 43,145 beds.
- From the file we show each home's name, address, licensed capacity, license number, first license date, and licensing status.
- We do not publish facility phone numbers or the names of licensees and administrators.
What we did to it
- Cleaned names and addresses. The file is in capital letters, so we convert names to title case and fix a handful of misspelled city names. Names are otherwise exactly as licensed.
- Placed each home on a map. We matched addresses to coordinates with the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder.
- Assigned communities. Postal city names are unreliable in Los Angeles, where most of the city shares one mailing name. We assign each home to one of the Los Angeles Times Mapping L.A. community boundaries by its coordinates, which gives 180 communities with at least one licensed home. Homes we could not place are assigned by postal city.
- Grouped by size. Six beds or fewer is labeled board and care, 7 to 15 a small care home, and 16 or more assisted living. All are the same license type.
- Measured distances in a straight line between coordinates to list the nearest similar homes.
What the data does not tell you
The public file does not show whether a home has an opening, what it charges, whether it holds dementia, hospice or non-ambulatory approvals, which languages its staff speak, or its inspection history. We confirm the first four by phone for families we help. Inspection reports are on the state's Care Facility Search.
Licensing status can change at any time. Always confirm a license with the state before making a decision. A listing on this site is not an endorsement, and we list every licensed home whether or not we work with it.
Cost figures
Cost ranges on community pages come from published 2026 surveys cited in our cost guide. Board and care ranges are a California statewide range because no source we trust breaks them out for Los Angeles County or by neighborhood. Assisted living base rent is shown by region where a published regional range exists.
Corrections
If you run a home and something about it is wrong, or the home has closed, tell us and we will check it against the state record. See our editorial standards.