Group homes in Minnesota: what the term actually means, who licenses them, and how to find an opening

"Group home" is a description, not a license

HB101 Minnesota, the state-funded housing benefits guide, defines group homes as "housing settings that include services where seniors or people with disabilities live in the same building" — and then says the thing that matters: the term "does not refer to a specific state license or registered setting." Source: HB101 Minnesota — Group Homes (updated 31 August 2025).

That is why two families can both say "we found a group home" and be describing completely different things — one a four-bed foster home on a cul-de-sac with a live-in caregiver, the other a sixteen-bed treatment programme with nurses on staff. The word tells you nothing about the license, the staffing, who can live there, or who pays. The license does.

The six settings people mean, side by side

Adult foster care — the one most people mean

Adult foster care is "provision of food, lodging, protection, supervision, and household services to a functionally impaired adult in a residence." Source: Minn. Rules part 9555.5105 — adult foster care licensing: definitions, subp. 3. Licenses carry "a maximum licensed capacity of four beds, including nonstaff roomers and boarders"; a fifth bed is allowed only "if all persons in care are age 55 or over and do not have a serious and persistent mental illness or a developmental disability." Source: Minn. Stat. § 245A.11 subd. 2a — adult foster care and community residential setting capacity, subd. 2a(a)–(b). Family and corporate foster care differ on one point: whether "the license holder lives in the home." Source: Minn. Stat. § 245D.02 — home and community-based services standards: definitions, subd. 8c and 4d.

Community residential setting — the 245D cousin

A community residential setting is "a residential program where residential supports and services … are provided to adults … and the license holder is the owner, lessor, or tenant of the facility licensed according to this chapter, and the license holder does not reside in the facility." Source: Minn. Stat. § 245D.02 — home and community-based services standards: definitions, subd. 4a. It follows the same four-bed baseline as foster care. Source: Minn. Stat. § 245A.11 subd. 2a — adult foster care and community residential setting capacity. From the kerb the two are indistinguishable; the license certificate is the difference.

Board and lodge, supervised living, ICF/DD — the MDH side

HB101 lists board and lodge as housing for "five or more people" with "individual or shared bedrooms," and ICF/DDs as homes for "people with developmental disabilities or related conditions," most of them certified to accept Medical Assistance; both are licensed by the Minnesota Department of Health. Source: HB101 Minnesota — Group Homes (updated 31 August 2025). Supervised living facilities are defined in MDH's rules, Minn. Rules part 4665. Source: Minn. Stat. § 245D.02 — home and community-based services standards: definitions, subd. 33a. The practical consequence: these settings are on MDH's license lookup, not DHS's.

IRTS — treatment, not housing

Intensive residential treatment services are "a community-based medically monitored level of care for an adult client" using "rehabilitative principles to promote a client's recovery," delivered in programmes with "a capacity of five to 16 beds." Source: Minn. Stat. § 245I.23 — intensive residential treatment services (IRTS) and residential crisis stabilization, subd. 1(a) and 19(b). People do call them group homes. They are not — they are time-limited treatment, and the question that matters most is where the person goes afterwards. Our IRTS guide covers that.

Who pays for what

Every one of these settings splits the bill the same way, and understanding the split is the difference between a placement that holds and one that collapses at the first invoice.

Services — supervision, personal care, skills training, medication help, behavioural support — are paid by a Medicaid waiver when the resident has one: CADI "for people with disabilities who require the level of care provided in a nursing facility," DD "for people with developmental disability or related condition," BI "for people with acquired or traumatic brain injuries," and the Elderly Waiver for older adults. Source: Disability Hub MN — Waivers: common questions. Foster care services and residential care services are on the CADI service list. Source: DB101 Minnesota — Community Access for Disability Inclusion (CADI) Waiver.

Room and board is never the waiver's. "A waiver doesn't pay your rent or mortgage." Source: Disability Hub MN — Waivers: common questions. In a licensed home the bed, meals, heat and household supplies are covered by the resident's own income, by Housing Support — "assistance that provides at a minimum room and board" — or by both. Source: Minn. Stat. § 256I.03 — Housing Support: definitions, subd. 10a.

Housing Support can also fund supplementary services — "oversight and up to 24-hour supervision, medication reminders, assistance with transportation, arranging for meetings and appointments, and arranging for medical and social services." Source: Minn. Stat. § 256I.03 — Housing Support: definitions, subd. 14b. That is why a home may quote one monthly figure and then describe two funding sources behind it.

Which lookup to check — and why there are two

Because the settings above are split between two state agencies, there are two license lookups. Adult foster care and community residential settings are on the DHS Licensing Information Lookup, Minnesota DHS Licensing Information Lookup. Board and lodge, supervised living facilities, ICF/DDs and assisted living are on MDH's facility search, MDH — Verify a Facility License. If a home is on neither, stop and ask why before going further.

Our listings say plainly what license data we hold, and show the number itself on verified listings; the state's lookup is the record, and our license-check guide walks through both sites.

Finding an opening — the part that is actually hard

Licensed homes are easy to list and hard to get into. A four-bed foster home has, at most, four openings in its life at any one time, and usually none. The search is about vacancies, not about licenses, and it is done by phone.

Where the openings are on this site: adult foster care by city, providers by the waiver they record, and current openings — every one confirmed by its provider within the last 30 days, or it comes off the page. Waiver acceptance is recorded for a minority of listings, so a missing tag means "not recorded," not "refused."

If you are a county case manager, social worker or discharge planner doing this search every week, the Openings Digest sends the same confirmed openings to your inbox, filtered by county, care type and waiver. It is free. For help finding the right county office to open a waiver in the first place, Disability Hub MN is at 1-866-333-2466. Source: Disability Hub MN, 1-866-333-2466.