Personal Care Homes

Definition:: Any dwelling that provides or arranges for the provision of housing, food service, and one or more personal services for two or more adults who are not related to the owner or administrator by blood or marriage. (Personal services include but are not limited to individual assistance with and supervision of self-administered medications and essential activities or daily living such as eating, bathing, grooming, dressing, and toileting.)

Exemptions:: • Boarding homes or rooming houses that provide no personal services other than lodging and meals.; • Facilities offering temporary shelter such as those for the homeless and victims of family violence.; • Treatment facilities that provide medical nursing services and that are approved by the state and regulated under more specific authorities.; • Facilities providing residential services for correctional institutions.; • Hospices.; • Therapeutic substance abuse treatment facilities.; • Group residences organized by or for persons who choose to live independently or who manage their own care and share the cost of services including but not limited to attendant care, transportation, rent, utilities and food preparation.; • Charitable organizations providing shelter and other services without charging any fee to the residents.; • Any personal care home operated by the federal government.

Type Regulation:: A home must obtain a permit. However, the Department of Human Resources may register personal care homes that care for two or three residents.

Legal Authority: O.C.G.A. § 31-7-1, Title 31- Health; Chapter 7- Regulation and Construction of Hospitals and other Health Care Facilities; Article 1- Regulation of Hospitals and Related Institutions

O.C.G.A. § 31-7-1, Title 31- Health; Chapter 7- Regulation and Construction of Hospitals and other Health Care Facilities; Article 5- Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly Authorities

O.C.G.A. § 31-7-1, Title 31- Health; Chapter 7- Regulation and Construction of Hospitals and other Health Care Facilities; Article 12- Health Care Data Collection

O.C.G.A. § 31-2-4, Title 31- Health; Chapter 2- Department of Human Resources; Level 3- Rules and regulations; variances and waivers to rules and regulations establishing licensure standards for facilities; exemption of classes of facilities from regulation

The following link will take you to the Georgia General Assembly, Georgia Code website. Scroll down the page to find O.C.G.A. § 31-7-300.; Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Rules:: Rules and Regulations for Personal Care Homes, Chapter 290-5-35, effective June 15, 1994; revised February 13, 2008.