Assisted Living in New York

New York’s assisted living provides aging adults a safe and comfortable place to receive quality senior care, engage in fun activities, and indulge in all the locale has to offer. Although the cost of living is on the higher end overall, New York offers a unique mix of small towns and large cityscapes. “Excelsior,” New York’s motto meaning “ever upward,” hints at the state’s strong character, from NYC’s robust arts and culture scene to the suburban lifestyle of upstate New York and every eccentricity in between.

According to A Place for Mom’s internal data, the average cost of assisted living in New York is about $6,000 per month, but can range from about $3,300 to $9,400. In comparison, the national average cost of assisted living is approximately $5,100 per month.^[01] There are a handful of factors that play a role in determining a community’s cost, including location, amenities, care levels, and apartment floor plan size.

You can generally expect to see costs rise in communities that offer luxury amenities, large floor plans, and advanced or specialized care services. Additionally, locations with a high cost of living typically have higher costs of assisted living. The cost of living in New York is just over 1.5 times more expensive than the national average, which could explain why the cost of assisted living is also above average.^[02]

The assisted living costs above account for all fees paid, including services, amenities, and care. Our figures reflect actual prices paid by families referred to one of A Place for Mom’s partner assisted living communities in New York. To cover these costs, most families use a combination of public and private payment methods, which you’ll read about below.

While many people can rely on personal funds to cover their assisted living costs, it’s most common for families to use a combination of private and public payment methods. New York offers a range of financial aid programs, including Medicaid, Medicare, and veterans benefits. Read about assisted living payment methods below, or for a higher level overview, explore our guide to paying for long-term care.

For licensing purposes, assisted living in New York is referred to as any of the following:^[06]

• Adult-Care Facilities are defined as a family-type home for adults that provides residential care, either short-term or long-term, and services to older adults or adults with certain disabilities who cannot care for themselves.
• Adult Homes are defined as a type of adult care facility that provides long-term residential care to at least five adults, as well as housing, housekeeping, personal care, and supervision. Accommodations in adult homes are apartment-style.
• Enriched Housing Programs are defined as an adult care facility that provides long-term residential care to at least five adults aged 65 or older, as well as housing, housekeeping, supervision, and personal care. Accommodations in an enriched housing program are independent housing units.
• Assisted Living Residences are defined as a type of adult care facility that has a base licensure as an adult home or enriched housing program but provides a higher level of care. These residences can be certified as special needs assisted living to provide dementia care. They can also be certified as enhanced assisted living to support aging in place.

The New York Department of Health licenses and regulates Adult Homes, Enriched Housing Programs, and Assisted Living Residences. Adult Care Facilities aren’t licensed to provide nursing or medical care. Licensed Adult Homes and Enriched Housing Programs have similar provisions. However, Adult Homes aren’t required to provide more than one meal per day or private rooms for residents, while Enriched Housing Programs are.

You can learn more about New York’s specific assisted living regulations by visiting the New York section of the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL)’s Assisted Living Regulatory Review.

Ease of access to assisted living records in New York

We developed a system to rate each state on how easy — or difficult — it is to find important assisted living records and reports and compiled tips to help you in your search.

States with the most transparent records allow you to look up important information about each assisted living facility online, including inspections, complaints, survey results, violations, capacity, and whether the facility accepts Medicaid.

Access to New York assisted living records: Exceptional

Public access to assisted living records and reports for the state of New York is exceptional. Key findings that informed this rating include:

• New York has dramatically increased in transparency and accessibility due to their new NYS Adult Care Facility Profiles page being a searchable database of licensed assisted living communities.
• New York has had increase in frequency of inspections as inspections now occur on an annual basis.

How to look up New York assisted living licenses and records

• View the state’s “Do Not Refer” list for communities to definitely avoid.
• Visit New York’s NYS Adult Care Facility Profiles to search for information about assisted living facilities in New York. Unfortunately, the state only lists the citations found in the inspections and does not make the survey viewable online. An Open Record Request will need to be made to view the surveys in their entirety.
• View the state’s Adult Care page for a directory of communities.
• Visit the US Administration on Aging’s Eldercare Locator to locate the appropriate long-term care ombudsman who can often provide specific information about communities and their backgrounds.

How we arrived at our New York rating

We developed a standard methodology for state data collection and evaluation, and based our rating primarily on the objective, state-specific accessibility criteria outlined in these questions:

1. Are licensed assisted living communities listed online in any form? Yes
2. If Yes to #1, is the information updated frequently? Yes
3. If Yes to #1, is the list of licensed communities searchable? Yes
4. Does the state post inspections, complaints, survey results, or violations online? Yes
5. If Yes to #4, is the information updated frequently (within 90 days)? Yes
6. If Yes to #2 and #4, is the enforcement information included in the same place as licensed communities? No
7. If Yes to #4 and No to #6, are violations and inspections searchable at all? No
8. Is information about special licensing for care shown? Yes
9. Is capacity shown? Yes
10. Are payment types shown (e.g., Medicaid, private pay)? No
11. Is the administrator/contact name shown? No
12. Can the state fine a facility? Yes
13. What is the frequency of inspections? Every 12 months
14. Does the website include pricing of facilities? No