The empty-bed record

What California’s own inspection records show about empty beds in licensed board-and-care homes — computed live from the state record when this page renders, with the exact queries, the definitions, and the county table published below.

The finding

California lists 8,620 licensed residential care homes for the elderly (RCFEs). For 4,210 of them, the state’s inspection documents record both the licensed capacity and the number of residents present at a state visit. Of those censused homes, 3,103 (73.7%) had at least one empty bed at their most recent recorded state visit — 54,060 empty beds in total across those homes (positive-only sum; the net figure across all censused homes is 53,503).

The visits behind these numbers were recorded between May 5, 2020 and September 30, 2026. These numbers describe the most recent recorded state visit for each home. Visits happen on different dates and occupancy changes daily — nothing here is a claim about which homes have a bed open right now.

San Diego County, as one county-level cut: 263 of 354 censused homes (74.3%) had at least one empty bed at their most recent recorded state visit — 4,620 empty beds.

Definitions

• Censused home — a home whose license status places it in the public directory (the exact status list is in the queries below) and whose state inspection documents record residents present at a visit. For each home we use only its most recent recorded visit.
• Empty bed — licensed capacity minus residents counted, at that visit.
• The headline sum is positive-only. The headline empty-bed figure is a positive-only sum: for each censused home we take licensed capacity minus residents counted at its most recent recorded state visit, and count it only when that difference is positive. Some homes were over census at their visit; the net sum across all censused homes is published beside the headline figure.
• The tense rule. These numbers describe the most recent recorded state visit for each home. Visits happen on different dates and occupancy changes daily — nothing here is a claim about which homes have a bed open right now.

The exact queries

These are the queries this page ran to produce every number above — shown verbatim, not paraphrased. The inspection_census facts they read are parsed by deterministic code from the state’s own inspection documents and each row stays anchored to the document it came from; our methodology page covers the full pipeline and the data page covers reuse.

SELECT count(*)::int AS listable
  FROM operators
 WHERE (upper(license_status) in ('LICENSED','LICENSED/PENDING INCREASE','PROBATIONARY LICENSE') and succeeded_by is null);

WITH latest_census AS (
  SELECT DISTINCT ON (f.license_number)
         f.license_number,
         (f.value->>'capacity')::int AS capacity,
         (f.value->>'census')::int   AS census,
         f.value->>'date'            AS visit_date
    FROM facility_facts f
    JOIN operators o ON o.license_number = f.license_number
   WHERE f.field = 'inspection_census'
     AND f.superseded_by IS NULL
     AND f.review_status = 'ok'
     AND (upper(license_status) in ('LICENSED','LICENSED/PENDING INCREASE','PROBATIONARY LICENSE') and succeeded_by is null)
   ORDER BY f.license_number, f.value->>'date' DESC
)
SELECT count(*)::int                                              AS censused,
       count(*) FILTER (WHERE capacity > census)::int             AS homes_with_empty,
       coalesce(sum(GREATEST(capacity - census, 0)), 0)::int      AS empty_beds_positive,
       coalesce(sum(capacity - census), 0)::int                   AS empty_beds_net,
       min(visit_date)                                            AS earliest_visit,
       max(visit_date)                                            AS latest_visit
  FROM latest_census;

WITH latest_census AS (
  SELECT DISTINCT ON (f.license_number)
         f.license_number,
         (f.value->>'capacity')::int AS capacity,
         (f.value->>'census')::int   AS census,
         f.value->>'date'            AS visit_date
    FROM facility_facts f
    JOIN operators o ON o.license_number = f.license_number
   WHERE f.field = 'inspection_census'
     AND f.superseded_by IS NULL
     AND f.review_status = 'ok'
     AND (upper(license_status) in ('LICENSED','LICENSED/PENDING INCREASE','PROBATIONARY LICENSE') and succeeded_by is null)
   ORDER BY f.license_number, f.value->>'date' DESC
)
SELECT o.county,
       count(*)::int                                              AS censused,
       count(*) FILTER (WHERE l.capacity > l.census)::int         AS homes_with_empty,
       coalesce(sum(GREATEST(l.capacity - l.census, 0)), 0)::int  AS empty_beds_positive
  FROM latest_census l
  JOIN operators o ON o.license_number = l.license_number
 WHERE o.county IS NOT NULL
 GROUP BY o.county
 ORDER BY o.county;

County table

Why it matters

No state or federal source publishes which licensed RCFEs have an open bed, a website, or a price. Meanwhile the state’s own program data shows demand: the California Department of Health Care Services, Assisted Living Waiver monthly waitlist report counted 18,365 people waiting for an Assisted Living Waiver spot as of December 2025. (That figure is the state’s published number, cited as such — it is not computed from this database.)

What this report does not do

• It never names a facility as failing, empty, or full — counties and the state are the only units here.
• It never claims a bed is available anywhere. An empty bed at a recorded visit is a historical fact, not an availability claim.
• It never scores or ranks homes; per-home pages show the state’s record verbatim, with dates and sources.
• Where the state record is silent, we show nothing — a blank is “not on file”, never “no”.

Reproduce it, or correct it

The queries above are the whole computation — anyone with the state’s public records can rebuild these numbers. Data reuse terms are on the data page. If you believe any figure is wrong, our correction process and public corrections log are at /corrections: we acknowledge within 2 business days and re-check the disputed field against the state’s own systems.

Press contact

Write to press@covelightcare.com. It reaches the founder directly — there is no press office in between. Useful things to ask for: the query behind a specific number, a county cut that isn’t in the table above, the definition governing a column, or the state documents a figure was parsed from. Tell us your deadline and we’ll tell you straight away whether we can meet it.

Source: California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Division public inspection records, parsed deterministically and quoted verbatim; DHCS Assisted Living Waiver program data (cited, doc-sourced). Computed live by Covelight Care at render time. This page presents public-record information and is not medical or legal advice.