Asked to Leave a Care Home? A Goodyear Guide

The letter arrives and the floor drops out. Your father has been at the same Goodyear community for a year and a half, and now there is a written notice saying his residency is being terminated. Thirty days. Maybe fourteen.

For many families this arrives without warning. There are specific things worth checking, and Arizona's rules are more detailed than most families realize.

One thing first. What follows is general information about what Arizona's assisted living rules require. It is not advice about your father's situation. The State Long Term Care Ombudsman program, run by the Arizona Department of Economic Security, is free and exists for exactly this kind of problem, and its contact information is required to be printed on the notice you received. If money, a contract dispute, or a guardianship is involved, talk to an elder law attorney before you respond in writing.

Arizona sets the notice periods, not the community

The Arizona Department of Health Services publishes the rules licensed assisted living facilities operate under. Under those rules, a manager may terminate a resident's residency in exactly three ways:

• Without notice, if the resident exhibits behavior that is an immediate threat to the health and safety of the resident or other individuals in the facility.
• With 14 calendar days' written notice, for nonpayment of fees, charges or a deposit, or under the retention conditions described below.
• With 30 calendar days' written notice, for any other reason.

Which period applies depends on the stated reason, and that distinction matters. "His needs exceed our level of care" is generally a 14-day reason, not a 30-day one, because it falls under the retention conditions rather than under "any other reason."

What the notice itself must contain

Under the rules, the written termination notice must include the date of the notice, the reason for the termination, the policy for refunding fees, charges or deposits, the disposition of the resident's fees, charges and deposits, and contact information for the State Long Term Care Ombudsman.

Alongside the notice, the facility must also give the resident a copy of their current service plan and documentation of the resident's freedom from infectious tuberculosis. Those are not formalities. The service plan tells the next community what care he actually receives, and the TB documentation is something the next community will need.

One further requirement is easy to overlook. If the reason for termination is that the resident needs services the facility is either not licensed to provide, or is licensed to provide but cannot provide, the notice must describe the specific services he needs that they cannot deliver.

So if a notice says only "his needs exceed our level of care," that is less than the rule calls for. You can ask for the specific services, and you want that answer regardless, because it is the single most useful piece of information for finding the next place.

A caution, because it matters: the rules set out what a notice must contain, but they do not say what happens if a notice is incomplete. There is no appeal process in these rules, no cure period, and nothing that pauses the clock. So if something is missing, raise it with the ombudsman at the same time you raise it with the community, and do not let fourteen or thirty days run out waiting for a corrected notice that nobody is required to send.

What a facility is not permitted to retain

Some terminations happen because the rules do not allow the facility to continue. Under R9-10-807(C), a manager shall not accept or retain someone who requires continuous medical services, continuous nursing services (unless the facility complies with A.R.S. § 36-401(C)), or continuous behavioral health services; whose primary condition requiring assisted living is a behavioral health issue; whose needed services fall outside the facility's scope of services when no home health agency or hospice service agency is involved in their care; whom the facility does not have the ability to serve; or who requires restraints, including bedrails.

A separate rule, R9-10-814(A), adds more limits for facilities authorized to provide personal care. Such a facility shall not accept or retain a resident who is unable to direct self-care, who is confined to a bed or chair because of an inability to ambulate even with assistance, or who has a stage 3 or stage 4 pressure sore as determined by a registered nurse or medical practitioner.

If your father's notice cites one of these, that is the rule it is coming from.

There is a route to staying put, and it is worth knowing before you pack

The same rule that creates those limits also creates exceptions, and families are rarely told about them.

A personal care facility may accept or retain a resident who is receiving nursing services from a home health agency or a hospice service agency. It may also retain someone who is bed or chair bound, or who has a stage 3 or 4 pressure sore, or who needs intermittent nursing services because of a short-term illness or injury, when a specific set of conditions is met:

1. The resident or the resident's representative requests that the resident remain in the facility.
2. The resident's primary care provider or other medical practitioner examines the resident, reviews the facility's scope of services, and signs and dates a determination that the resident's needs can be met, and are being met, by the facility within its scope of services. That examination has to be repeated at least every six months while the condition lasts.
3. The resident's service plan is updated to include the increased need for personal care services.

Read the verbs carefully. The rule says the facility may retain, not must. This is not a right you can enforce, and a community can still decline. But it is a real, written path, it starts with a request from your family, and it is worth raising with the community and your father's physician before you accept that a move is inevitable.

Two resident rights are also worth knowing. The rules prohibit retaliation against a resident for submitting a complaint to the Department or another entity. And a resident has the right to receive a referral to another health care institution if the facility is not authorized or not able to provide the physical health or behavioral health services they need.

The first few days

Call the State Long Term Care Ombudsman. Their contact information has to be on the notice. The program is free and advocates for residents of long-term care settings. If there is money or a contract in dispute, call an elder law attorney as well.

Read the notice against the requirements above and note anything missing.

Ask for the specific services in writing, if the stated reason is about care needs.

Collect the service plan and TB documentation. The facility is required to provide both with the notice.

Ask whether the retention route applies. If the gap is nursing care, a home health agency or hospice agency may change the analysis, and the physician determination described above is the mechanism.

Begin looking as well. Even while you are raising questions, start the search the same week. Fourteen or thirty days is not long, and you want real options rather than whatever has a bed open.

The part nobody says out loud

Most of the time this is a mismatch between a person's needs and a building's license and staffing, not a verdict on your father. A facility can only provide what it is licensed and staffed for, and that differs from building to building.

In the cases we see, behavior is often the trigger: resistance to care, exit-seeking, calling out at night, difficulty during personal care. Families often feel shame about it. It is worth setting that down. Behavioral group homes exist precisely because some residents need a structure a conventional community is not built to provide, and a setting licensed and staffed for what he actually needs is the goal, even though it does not feel that way the week the letter arrives.

Prevention, for anyone not yet here

The residency agreement is where much of this is decided, and Arizona requires it to contain specific things. Among others: the terms of occupancy and the responsibilities of both sides, a list of services the facility provides, a list of services available at an additional fee, the refund policy for fees and deposits, the policy and procedure for a resident to terminate residency including terminating because services were not provided according to the service plan, the policy and procedure for the facility to terminate residency, the complaint process, and the manager's signature and date.

For an assisted living home, the ten-or-fewer-resident kind, the agreement must also state whether the manager or a caregiver is awake during nighttime hours. That single disclosure answers a question families ask on every tour and rarely get in writing.

The facility must also give you a copy of the residency agreement, a copy of resident's rights, and its policy on health care directives at or before move-in.

So read the termination section before you sign.

How we help

Integrity Senior Placement helps Goodyear families when a notice arrives, and the service is free to families. We can read the notice with you, help you work out which rule it is coming from, and if a move is needed, look at assisted living communities and care homes licensed and staffed for the services named in the notice. We also stay involved after a move through advocacy and follow-up, which is often when problems like this first surface.

If you have a notice in hand, we are glad to talk it through. Talk with a placement advisor, and know that the ombudsman is the right first call for the notice itself. We work with families throughout Goodyear and the West Valley.

Sources

• Arizona Department of Health Services: Assisted Living Facilities rules, 9 A.A.C. 10, Article 8 (ADHS publishes this as an unofficial version, effective November 5, 2019; Arizona's assisted living rules have been amended since, so confirm the current official text in the Arizona Administrative Code)
• Arizona Department of Health Services: Assisted Living Facilities Provider Type Definitions

This article is for general information and is not legal, medical, or financial advice. Rules change and individual situations differ, so confirm the current requirements with the Arizona Department of Health Services, and speak with the State Long Term Care Ombudsman or an elder law attorney about your parent's specific circumstances.

Published October 30, 2026.