What Is Adult Foster Care in Michigan? A Guide for Families
If you have been searching for assisted living in Michigan, you have probably noticed something confusing. Some places call themselves assisted living. Some call themselves adult foster care. Some use both terms. And nobody seems to explain the difference.
I am going to explain it, because this is one of those things that actually matters, not just as a technicality but for the safety of your loved one.
Michigan Does Not License "Assisted Living"
This surprises most families. In Michigan, "assisted living" is not an official license category. It is a marketing term. Any facility can call itself an assisted living community without holding a specific license for that label. The state does not regulate the term.
What Michigan does license are two categories of residential care:
Adult foster care homes, licensed under the Adult Foster Care Facility Licensing Act (Act 218 of 1979). These homes provide supervision, personal care, and room and board for adults who need help but do not require continuous nursing care.
Homes for the aged, licensed under the Public Health Code (Act 368 of 1978). The Public Health Code defines one as a supervised personal care facility at a single address providing room, board, and supervised personal care to 21 or more unrelated, nontransient individuals aged 55 or older. The size floor is part of the definition, not a detail. The only facility under that size that can hold the licence is one run as a distinct part of a licensed nursing home.
The two categories do not overlap. The Public Health Code definition of a home for the aged expressly excludes an adult foster care facility, so a given home holds one licence or the other, never both. If you are touring a small house in a residential neighborhood, you are looking at adult foster care. Both of our homes are licensed adult foster care homes.
Both are regulated and inspected by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, known as LARA. Both have rules about staffing, safety, resident rights, and training. Both are accountable.
A place that only calls itself "assisted living" without an adult foster care or Home for the Aged license is not inspected as a long-term care setting. It is not regulated as one. There are no public records about it on LARA's website. That should concern you.
What Adult Foster Care Actually Looks Like
The name throws people off. "Foster care" sounds like something for children. It is not. Adult foster care in Michigan is the state's framework for residential homes where adults receive hands-on support in a home setting.
There are different sizes:
Family homes serve at least three and not more than six residents. The licensee lives in the home. These are the smallest and most personal settings.
Small group homes serve at least three and not more than twelve residents. These are residential homes, houses in neighborhoods, with dedicated caregiving staff. This is the category Golden Pines falls into. Our two homes in Troy are licensed adult foster care small group homes, licensed and regulated by LARA.
Large group homes serve thirteen to twenty residents. Still residential in nature, but larger.
Congregate facilities serve twenty-one or more. At this size, the environment starts to feel more institutional.
The common thread is that adult foster care homes are actual homes. They are not hospitals. They are not clinical facilities. They are houses where people live and where caregivers provide daily support: help with bathing, dressing, medications, meals, mobility, and the ordinary tasks that become difficult with age or illness.
Why This Matters for Your Family
When you search online for senior care in Michigan, you will find everything from fully licensed, regularly inspected adult foster care homes to places operating with no state oversight at all. They might look similar on a website. The difference shows up in the details.
A licensed adult foster care home is operating inside a regulatory regime: it has had to meet the state's requirements to hold the licence and it has to keep meeting them. Its staff has completed required training. It follows rules about fire safety, medication management, resident rights, and reporting. If something goes wrong, there is a regulatory body with authority to act, and a licensed home answers to it. Families can confirm that a home is licensed before they ever walk through the door.
An unlicensed place that calls itself assisted living offers none of that. I am not saying every unlicensed residence is bad. I am saying you have no way to verify, and that should matter when you are trusting someone with your parent's daily care.
You can look a home up yourself on the LARA website by facility name or city, and confirm that it is licensed and what category of licence it holds. I encourage every family to do that before making a decision, because it is the one fact about a place that does not depend on anybody's sales pitch.
Why the Words You Search Matter
Here is something worth being honest about, because it affects how families find care. Most people searching online type "assisted living near me" or "assisted living in Troy, Michigan." That is the national term, and it is what everyone uses.
But in Michigan, the homes that are actually licensed and regulated are called adult foster care homes. If you only search for "assisted living," you might miss some of the best small homes in the state, the ones that use the official Michigan term rather than the marketing term. And you might land on places using the "assisted living" label with no license behind it.
We use both terms, because we know families search for "assisted living" and we want them to find us. But officially, Golden Pines is a licensed adult foster care provider. That distinction is not just branding. It means we are held to a standard.
What We Provide as an Adult Foster Care Home
At Golden Pines, our two adult foster care small group homes in Troy provide:
Daily living support. Help with bathing, dressing, grooming, mobility, and toileting, tailored to whatever each resident needs.
Medication management. Our caregivers administer and track medications, coordinate with pharmacies, and communicate with families and physicians about changes.
Home-cooked meals. Three meals a day plus snacks, served at the kitchen table. We accommodate dietary needs and preferences.
24-hour supervision. A caregiver is always on site. Not on call. Present.
A real home environment. These are houses in Troy neighborhoods. Residents have their own bedrooms. There is a living room, a kitchen, a sunroom. It looks like a home because it is one.
We are licensed by LARA, inspected regularly, and transparent about our operations. Any family can look up our homes on the state database.
How to Verify Any Home in Michigan
Before you visit any senior care home in Michigan, do this:
- Ask for their license number and license type (adult foster care family home, adult foster care small group, adult foster care large group, or Home for the Aged).
- Search for the facility on LARA's Adult Foster Care and Homes for the Aged lookup tool and confirm the licence and its category.
- If a place cannot provide a license number, or if nothing comes up in the LARA database, ask why.
This takes five minutes, and it is the single most important piece of research you can do. A license does not guarantee perfection. But it guarantees accountability, and in this industry, accountability matters.
Finding the Right Home
Families come to us from across the metro area: from nearby in Troy, from Clawson just down the road, from all over Oakland County. Many of them started by searching for assisted living and learned about adult foster care along the way. The families who understand the distinction tend to ask better questions during tours, because they know what to look for and what to verify.
If you are searching for care for someone you love in the Troy, Michigan area, I hope this clears up some of the confusion. The terminology can be frustrating, but the underlying reality is simple: in Michigan, licensed adult foster care homes are where you will find regulated, inspected, accountable residential care.
Golden Pines is one of those homes. If you want to see what that looks like, come visit. Our homes are at 6131 Herbmoor St and 3178 Daley Dr in Troy. Call (248) 266-2738 or email [email protected].