California provides scant information to families looking for residential elderly care

According to the California Department of Social Services website, Valley Springs Manor is open for business and fully licensed.

That may come as a surprise to the families of 19 residents who were abandoned at the facility in October because state regulators closed it for providing substandard care. The fact that state records don't reflect the well-publicized incident points to a bigger problem: Californians looking for a safe option for a loved one can get scant information about such facilities from the state agency that regulates them.

The agency's website lists little more than addresses and licensing status for California residential care homes. And when this news organization asked the state for complete information on inspections, violations, citations and fines on such facilities, it was told that fulfilling such a request would take four years and would require a payment of almost $30,000.

Instead, the Department of Social Services provided information on the number and amount of fines levied against each facility in the state in 2012 and 2013. The news organization is making that information available in an exclusive, searchable database providing useful if incomplete guidance to family members who so far have found little help from the state.

Anita Phillips is one of those. When she placed her ex-husband, Stan, at Valley Springs, she had no idea that the home had a history of violations, or that its administrators were being investigated by the state.

"Nobody said, 'This place is in trouble,'" before the home closed, she said. "But it was falling apart."

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California provides scant information to families looking for residential elderly care

Searchable Database