About Chicago Care for Seniors
I built Chicago Care for Seniors because I couldn't find it when my own family needed it.
My father, who had recently immigrated, needed care after a hospital stay. I was his caregiver, but I had no real say in where he was placed and no way to know whether it was safe. He died in 2020.
The information that would have told me — a facility's inspection findings, its staffing, its record with state regulators — existed. But it was buried in government databases never built for families to read, and no one hands it to you when you have no time and no choice.
That's why this site exists: so the next family in that position, especially the ones who don't get a choice, can at least see the record. Today I care for my mother, who lives with me, and the questions I ask about her care are the same ones I couldn't get answered back then.
That's the work this site does: sit with a state inspection report or a federal staffing dataset, understand what it's actually saying, and write it back in plain language.
What this site is
An independent, plain-spoken guide to senior care in the Chicago area and the collar counties (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry, and Kendall), built on public inspection and licensing records rather than marketing. Every government-sourced facility page shows where its information came from and when it was last checked — see our methodology for exactly how.
What it isn't
It is not medical advice, and a listing here is never an endorsement of a facility. It's a starting point for your own research — meant to save you time and point you toward the right questions, not to replace visiting a place yourself or talking to your own doctor.
How it works
- Search and browse communities for free — no account needed.
- Filter by county, care type, price, and Medicaid/Supportive Living Program eligibility.
- Contact a community directly by phone or through its listing page.
- Community operators can list or claim their facility for free, with optional paid upgrades for enhanced visibility — see our note on independence.
No facility pays to be listed here, to rank higher, or to have a weak inspection record softened or hidden. If that ever changes, this page will say so plainly.
If this site saves one family an ounce of the confusion mine went through, it's done its job.