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Community Living Arrangements (CLAs)

Definition:

A Community Living Arrangement is any residence, whether operated for profit or not, that undertakes through its ownership or management to provide or arrange for the provision of daily personal services, supports, care, or treatment exclusively for two or more adults who are not related to the owner or administrator by blood or marriage and whose residential services are financially supported, in whole or in part, by funds designated through the Department of Human Resources, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Addictive Diseases.

Exemptions:

• Boarding homes or rooming houses that provide no personal services other than lodging and meals;

• Facilities offering temporary or emergency shelter, such as those for the homeless or victims of family violence, respite homes serving persons for 30 days or less, or homes serving one person;

• Emergency receiving, evaluation, and treatment facilities that provide medical and nursing services and that are approved by the state and regulated under other more specific authorities;

• Facilities providing residential services for federal, state, or local correctional institutions under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system;

• Hospices that serve terminally ill persons as defined in O.C.G.A. § 31-7-172(3);

• Therapeutic substance abuse treatment facilities and residences that are not intended to be an individual's permanent residence;

• Group residences organized by or for persons who choose to live independently and manage their own care and who 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 resident and without billing other agencies for services provided;

• Residences in which a person lives with his or her family;

• Residences in which a person lives under his or her own lease or warranty deed, in which the agency providing services does not manage the person's residence and the resident is not required to move when the agency providing services is changed;

• Apartments or other clustered residential arrangements where staff is available that are developed as permanent housing for adults with mental illness, in which each person lives within his or her residential arrangement without immediate support of staff; or

• Personal care homes as defined in Chapter 290-5-35.

Type Regulation:

A home must obtain a license.

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. § 37-1-22, Title 37- Mental Health; Chapter 1- General Provisions; Article 22- Powers and Duties of the Department of Human Resources
     
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 Community Living Arrangements, Chapter 290-9-37, effective November 13, 2002; revised February 12, 2008.

Fees:

• License: No charge

• Rules: $5.00

Other Resources: 

Qualified Medication Aide Program Information

Training Information

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