How Louisiana licenses assisted living in New Orleans

Who licenses assisted living in New Orleans, Louisiana?

The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) licenses every assisted living provider in New Orleans and the rest of the state through its Health Standards Section, using the legal name Adult Residential Care Provider (ARCP) and the minimum standards in LAC 48:I.Chapter 68.

The statute behind the rules is R.S. 40:2166.1-2166.8. An ARCP is defined by what it does rather than what it calls itself: it serves people in a congregate setting, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and provides a coordinated array of personal services, 24-hour supervision and assistance, activities and health-related services meant to let residents live in the least restrictive setting they choose. A building that markets itself as “senior living” but provides those services needs the license.

The City of New Orleans and the parish governments do not license care settings. The Office of State Fire Marshal and the Office of Public Health both inspect a building before LDH will license it, but the license itself, and the record to check first, comes from LDH.

What are the four levels of ARCP in Louisiana?

Louisiana divides ARCPs by size and services: a Level 1 personal care home serves two to eight residents in a house-like setting, a Level 2 shelter care home serves nine to 16 in a congregate setting, a Level 3 assisted living provider serves 17 or more in apartments with kitchenettes, and a Level 4 serves 17 or more and may also provide intermittent nursing (LAC 48:I.6803).

The level is not a quality grade. A well-run eight-bed personal care home on a quiet Metairie street can suit a parent better than a large building, and a large building may be the only place with the activities, dining and private apartment a more independent parent wants. What the level does tell you is the physical setting and, for Level 4 only, whether nursing can be delivered by the provider itself.

How many ARCPs are licensed in the New Orleans area?

LDH's October 2026 Licensed Providers Report lists 63 adult residential care providers in the six parishes: 15 at Level 1, 19 at Level 2, 23 at Level 3 and 1 at Level 4, with 5 whose level LDH's records do not state; 37 of them are in Jefferson Parish.

The levels are not spread evenly. Small Level 1 and Level 2 homes cluster in Metairie and the East Bank of Jefferson Parish, while the large Level 3 buildings are spread across Uptown New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner and the Northshore. Our full roster can be filtered by level, parish and city.

What does an ARCP have to provide?

Every Louisiana ARCP must keep at least one employee awake and on duty 24 hours a day, have a staff member trained in CPR and first aid on duty at all times, and schedule enough trained direct care staff to meet residents' scheduled and unscheduled needs around the clock (LAC 48:I.6805, 6865, 6867).

The rule does not set a numeric staff-to-resident ratio. It requires the provider to show, through its schedule and its residents' person-centered service plans, that the staffing is enough. It also bars staff from working at two ARCPs on the same shift and requires a designated person in charge on every shift. Providers that give medications through staff, and every Level 4 provider, must have enough registered and licensed practical nurses to carry out each resident's plan.

Who runs an ARCP, and what qualifications are required?

Every ARCP must have a director who is at least 21 and meets the education and experience criteria for its level; a Level 3 or 4 director needs, for example, a bachelor's degree plus two years of administrative experience in health, social services, geriatrics or management, or a nursing facility administrator license, and a Level 4 director must also complete an approved director course of at least 12 hours (LAC 48:I.6865).

Level 4 providers must also employ or contract with at least one registered nurse as nursing director, on call and reachable 24 hours a day, who works with each resident's physician on the health care part of the service plan. On LDH's roster the name in the administrator field is the person on the license; when a family asks “who is in charge,” that is the name to match.

Can an ARCP license be sold or moved?

No: an ARCP license belongs to one licensee at one location, cannot be sold or transferred, and a change of ownership, including a lease of the business, must be reported to LDH in writing within five business days (LAC 48:I.6813, 6817).

That is why the current license issue date on our facility pages can be much more recent than the first-licensed date: a building can change hands while keeping its street address and name. If a provider is under provisional licensure or facing revocation, it may not undergo a change of ownership at all. A recent ownership change is a fair reason to ask who manages the building now and whether the staff stayed.