Assisted living
The larger end of Anaheim is a short list
When people say assisted living they usually mean a building with a lobby, a dining room and an activities calendar. In Anaheim there are 14 of those, out of 97 licensed care homes in the city — but they hold about 78 per cent of all the licensed beds. It is a small list that looks like the whole market, which is exactly the trap.
From the state register, May 2025
Every licensed community of seven beds or more in Anaheim
Licence numbers are included so you can look any of them up on the state's own record rather than taking our word for it.
| Community | Licensed beds | Licensed since | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walnut Village891 Walnut Street, Anaheim 92802 | 334 | 1999 | 306000961 |
| Emerald Court1731 Medical Center, Anaheim 92801 | 299 | 2001 | 306001407 |
| Anaheim Villa3411 W Ball Road, Anaheim 92804 | 210 | 2024 | 306006387 |
| Anaheim Crown Plaza641 South Beach Blvd, Anaheim 92804 | 200 | 2017 | 306005316 |
| Harbor Heights Assisted Living and Memory Care525 W. La Palma Ave, Anaheim 92801 | 199 | 2024 | 306006452 |
| Brookdale Anaheim200 N Dale St, Anaheim 92801 | 140 | 2005 | 306002915 |
| The Meridian at Anaheim Hills525 S Anaheim Hills Road, Anaheim 92807 | 120 | 2020 | 306005730 |
| Karlton Residential Care Center3615 West Ball Rd., Anaheim 92804 | 76 | 1996 | 306000295 |
| Blue Sky Manor Inc280 N Wilshire Ave, Anaheim 92801 | 50 | 2021 | 306005792 |
| The Cottages at Artesia Anaheim8792 Cerritos Avenue, Anaheim 92804 | 38 | 2022 | 306006155 |
| Family Choice Senior Living3105 W. Orange Avenue, Anaheim 92804 | 30 | 2023 | 306006247 |
| Ardent Care1665 South Brookhurst Street, Anaheim 92804 | 27 | 2016 | 306005211 |
| Francel Guest Home II | 14 | 2007 | 306003566 |
| Silver Lining Residential Care | 14 | 2018 | 306005453 |
Two of these are licensed for more than six beds but are small guest homes rather than apartment communities, which is why their addresses are not listed here.
Reading the list
What the bed count is actually telling you
Size is not quality. It is a proxy for something more useful: what kind of day your mother would have.
The very large ones — a few hundred beds — run like small hotels. Real dining rooms, real programming, a nurse on site during the day, and tiers of staff so nothing depends on one person. If your father is sociable and still has opinions, this is where he will be happiest.
The middle ones, roughly thirty to a hundred and fifty beds, are the hardest to judge from outside. Some are excellent and personal. Some are a large building run on a small building's staffing. The difference is not visible on a tour, and it is the single thing we are most useful for.
Licence age matters more than you would think. A community licensed in the last two years has no inspection history to read. Several of Anaheim's larger communities are recent. That is not a reason to avoid them, but it is a reason to ask harder questions about who runs them and what they ran before.
Before you sign anything
The price on the tour is not the price
Larger communities almost always quote a base rent and then assess a care level on top. The care level is reassessed when needs change, which means the number you are shown in month one is the lowest number you will ever see.
So ask for these four things in writing, before anybody signs:
- The full invoice for a current resident with needs like hers — not the starting rate.
- Every care level, what triggers a move between them, and what each one costs.
- The community fee or move-in fee, and whether any of it is refundable.
- The notice period for a rate increase, and what last year's increase was.
A community that answers all four without hesitating is usually a good one. The hesitation is the information.
More on how these prices are built, and how families pay for them
Common questions
Assisted living in Anaheim, answered
- How many assisted living communities are there in Anaheim?
- The state's licensed register shows 14 residential care facilities in Anaheim licensed for more than six beds. Between them they hold the large majority of the city's licensed beds, even though they are a small minority of its licensed homes.
- What is the difference between assisted living and a nursing home?
- They are different licences with different rules. Assisted living in California is a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly, licensed by the Department of Social Services for non-medical care. A nursing home is a skilled nursing facility, licensed by the Department of Public Health, with nurses on duty around the clock.
- Does the advertised monthly price include care?
- Usually not in a larger community. The common structure is a base rent for the apartment plus a care level assessed on top, and the care level can be reassessed as needs change. Always ask what the current resident's all-in invoice looks like, not what the starting rate is.
If a larger community is not right, the other 83 licensed homes in Anaheim are board and care homes, and for a lot of families they are the better answer.
Which of these fourteen would actually take her?
Availability changes weekly and not every community accepts every level of need. Tell us the situation and we will tell you who has room, who would say no, and what each would really cost.
Tell us who you are looking after
Four short questions. Nothing you answer is shared with a facility until you say so.
Prefer to talk now? (714) 975-9652, open every day until 6pm.