Straight answers about assisted living
The questions families actually ask on the first phone call, including the ones with awkward answers.
What it costs
The room, three home-cooked meals a day plus snacks, housekeeping, laundry, awake overnight staff, medication management, and the hands-on care described in your level. The only routine add-on is incontinence care at +$500/mo, and only where it applies. There is a one-time $2,500 admission fee covering the deposit and onboarding. Every figure is set out on the pricing page, including what the whole first month comes to.
For most residents we work out cheaper, because our rate already includes the care. Larger communities advertise a base rent, then add a level-of-care fee, then bill medication management separately. One advertising around $4,299 a month can reach roughly $6,439 once somebody needs moderate hands-on help. Our Level 2 rate of $5,400 covers all of it. Ask everywhere you tour for a complete written fee schedule and compare the totals, not the headline rates. Small residential homes vary a good deal too, and some are cheaper than us.
Not for the first 12 months. The published rate for your level is held for 12 months from move-in, and it is written into the residency agreement rather than only promised on the website. The one thing that can be added during that time is incontinence care at +$500/mo if it becomes necessary, which is a separate service on the fee schedule rather than a rise in the rate, and we tell you before it starts. Texas does not require an assisted living facility to give any notice at all before raising rates, so this is a commitment rather than a rule we are following. After that, any change comes with 60 days' written notice. Worth asking everywhere you tour what notice they give.
We talk to you before anything changes, and a level is never adjusted quietly and then billed. You move to the published rate for the new level and nothing else: Level 1 to Level 2 is $500 a month, Level 2 to Level 3 is $1,100 a month. There is no re-assessment fee. It can also go down if somebody recovers.
Medicare does not cover assisted living room, board or personal care, here or anywhere else. It covers short-term skilled nursing or rehabilitation after a qualifying hospital stay. Daraan is private pay and we do not accept Medicaid. Many families use long-term care insurance or VA Aid and Attendance; there is more on the paying for care page, including what to do if Medicaid is your only realistic route.
Yes, at $200–$300/day depending on the level of care, with exactly the same care, meals and supervision as a permanent stay. Families use respite for recovery after a hospital stay, for a break from caregiving, or as a trial before anyone commits to anything. If a short stay turns into a permanent move within 60 days, everything you paid for the respite comes off the $2,500 admission fee, up to the whole of it. More on the respite page.
The care itself
Scale, and who is there at night. Large communities typically run one caregiver to eight residents, and some go considerably higher. We run approximately one caregiver to two residents, in a house, with the same small team, and someone awake overnight. There is more on what that changes day to day on the daily life page.
Not yet, and we would rather say so here than have you find out on a tour. Daraan's Type B assisted living licence application is in progress with Texas HHSC. Texas runs the final health survey with a resident already living in the home, so the licence is issued after the first move-in rather than before it. Until it is issued we do not appear on the state's provider search. We will tell you exactly where the application stands on the first call, and the about page sets out the sequence.
A Texas licence classification based on residents' ability to evacuate, and the licence Daraan is applying for. A Type B licence permits care for residents who need staff assistance to evacuate, who cannot reliably follow directions in an emergency, and who require overnight attendance. In practice it means we can support people with genuine hands-on daily needs, including two-person transfers and significant mobility limitations, not only residents who are largely independent. How that compares with a nursing home, memory care or home care is set out on its own page.
Approximately one caregiver to two residents. Larger assisted living communities typically run around one to eight, and some go considerably higher. The ratio is the reason a small home feels different, and it is the first question we would ask if we were the ones touring.
Yes, staff are up and checking overnight. Worth knowing that this is required of every Type B facility in Texas rather than something we invented. A Type A home is held to a lower standard: its overnight staff need only be immediately available, which permits them to be asleep. Two homes on the same street can both advertise round-the-clock care and mean very different things at three in the morning.
Some of our residents live with short-term memory loss, confusion or forgetfulness, and we provide medication reminders and assistance, meal and activity reminders, escort service and close supervision. Daraan has applied for a Type B assisted living licence and is not certified by Texas HHSC to provide specialised Alzheimer's care; we do not operate a memory care unit. Where needs progress beyond what a Type B licence permits, we will say so early and help you plan the next step rather than handing you a notice in a crisis.
Yes. Alongside older residents we care for adults with special needs who require supervision and assistance with daily living, within Type B scope.
Residents who are permanently bedfast or require total skilled nursing care, anyone requiring 24-hour licensed nursing supervision, and residents with severe behavioural or psychiatric conditions requiring specialised placement. We will tell you this on the first call rather than after a tour. Being clear about the no's is what makes the yes's worth anything. If that sounds like your situation, the page comparing assisted living, nursing homes, memory care and home care will point you at the right category.
Yes, and most residents keep theirs. Outside physicians, home health agencies, physical and occupational therapists and hospice teams visit the home. We schedule around them, share what we have observed, and do not charge the family for coordinating any of it.
Staff are trained on emergency procedures, the home is built and equipped to the state's safety requirements for an assisted living facility, and families are contacted immediately. With someone awake overnight, a fall or a change in condition is far more likely to be caught early than found in the morning.
Living here
Yes, and please do. Familiar furniture, bedding, photographs and personal things make an enormous difference to how quickly somebody settles. In our experience the rooms that settle fastest are the ones that arrived with something from home in the boot of the car.
No. Come whenever suits you, stay for a meal, take your relative out for the afternoon, turn up unannounced. In a house this size there is no reason for visiting hours, and we would rather you saw an ordinary day than a prepared one.
Yes. Halal, kosher, vegetarian and other religious dietary requirements can be arranged, along with diabetic, low-sodium, soft and pureed diets and allergies. We also work around prayer times, ritual washing, modesty in personal care and end-of-life practices. There is a good deal more detail on the faith, diet and culture page, including what we will not claim to do.
Moving in
When we have a room and the resident is within our scope, quickly. Short-notice hospital and rehab discharges are normal here. Call to check current availability before you build a discharge plan around us.
Medications in their original containers, a current medication list and medical information, physician and pharmacy contact details, insurance information, clothing and toiletries, and the personal things that make a room feel like theirs.
About an hour, and yes, please book at least a day ahead so we can give you our full attention. Tours run every day from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with the last booking at 5:00 PM.
Still have a question? Call (346) 331-1509 or email Daraanllc@gmail.com. We would far rather answer a hard question honestly than have you spend a Saturday touring a home that was never going to be right.
Come and see it for yourself.
Tours take about an hour, seven days a week. Walk through every room, meet the caregivers, and ask us anything at all. No pressure, no obligation.
Tours available daily, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM · Book at least one day ahead