Who helps a Santa Barbara family work out care costs and financing?

What working with us actually looks like

1. 1

   Get the real number, at local rates

   What care costs here, not nationally. Median assisted living is $7,000 a month and memory care is about $9,000 a month across the 48 communities we survey, and the care level tiers move that number by thousands.

2. 2

   List what can actually pay for it

   Income, savings, long term care insurance, VA Aid and Attendance, the Medi-Cal Assisted Living Waiver, home equity, a rental, the sale of the house, and support from family. Each one covers a specific piece.

3. 3

   Put the sources in the right order

   Which money gets spent first, which asset should not be touched, and what the healthy spouse keeps. Doing this before a deposit is paid is the difference between two years of care and six.

4. 4

   Then pick the community

   Only after the budget is real. We shortlist buildings against your number using the monthly vacancy survey, including the ones a placement agency would rather not mention.

What care costs in Santa Barbara right now

From our November 2026 survey of 48 assisted living and memory care communities in Santa Barbara. Add roughly 3 to 5 percent a year when you project past two years.

Can Next Best Home help me figure out memory care financing?

Yes. Memory care is the most expensive level most families pay privately, about $9,000 a month locally, and it is almost never funded by one source. Here is what we work through with you, in the order that keeps the most money working for the longest time:

• Retirement income and savings, with a written fee schedule so care tiers and annual increases are visible.
• Long term care insurance, claimed properly, including the elimination period and whether memory care is covered at all.
• VA Aid and Attendance for a wartime veteran or a surviving spouse, the benefit most often missed.
• The California Assisted Living Waiver under Medi-Cal, in a community that actually accepts it.
• Home equity, a reverse mortgage or a home equity line while a spouse keeps living in the house.
• Selling or renting the family home, priced against the care it buys rather than the day it sells.
• Life insurance conversion or accelerated death benefit, where the policy is not needed for a beneficiary.

What we do not do: file the Medi-Cal application, the VA claim or the insurance claim for you. We tell you what to apply for and in what order, then hand you to the public agencies, the VA, the insurer or an elder law attorney, so a neutral party is the one saying yes.

Questions families ask

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