Greenville Senior AdvisorWhat is a CRCF in South Carolina?
CRCF stands for community residential care facility, South Carolina's legal name for assisted living. The S.C. Department of Public Health licenses CRCFs under Regulation 60-84 to provide room, board and personal care to adults who need help but not daily skilled nursing.
DPH says facilities meeting the CRCF definition may call themselves assisted living, so the two terms describe the same license.
Who licenses assisted living in Greenville now that DHEC is gone?
The S.C. Department of Public Health (DPH), through its Healthcare Quality office. Act 60 of 2023 split DHEC on July 1, 2024, sending facility licensing to DPH and environmental programs to the new Department of Environmental Services.
The CRCF regulation was reissued as Regulation 60-84 on May 23, 2025, replacing DHEC's Regulation 61-84.
Does South Carolina have different levels of assisted living licenses?
No. South Carolina issues one CRCF license; a facility that runs a secured dementia program is flagged on DPH's data as having an Alzheimer's special care unit, but it holds the same license as any other CRCF.
What differs between buildings is size, services offered and whether they run an Alzheimer's unit.
How often are Greenville assisted living facilities inspected?
DPH inspects every CRCF before it is first licensed and then as it deems appropriate, and can inspect or investigate any facility at any time without notice (Regulation 60-84, Section 202).
South Carolina does not publish a fixed inspection cycle for CRCFs, so ask each facility when DPH last visited and request the report.
Can an assisted living facility operate without a license in South Carolina?
No. A facility that provides room, board and personal care to two or more unrelated adults for more than 24 hours must hold a DPH CRCF license; report a suspected unlicensed care home to DPH Healthcare Quality at 1-800-922-6735.
Unlicensed homes are not inspected and residents have none of the regulation's protections.
Does a CRCF administrator need a license in South Carolina?
Yes. Every CRCF administrator must be licensed as a community residential care facility administrator by the S.C. Board of Long Term Health Care Administrators at the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (Regulation 60-84, Section 502).
LLR's online lookup confirms an administrator's license status.
Is independent living licensed in South Carolina?
Independent living that offers housing and amenities without personal care is not a CRCF and needs no DPH license; once a building provides personal care to residents, it needs a CRCF license.
Retirement campuses often combine unlicensed independent living with a licensed CRCF and sometimes a licensed nursing home.
Why do some licensed CRCFs serve younger adults with disabilities?
Because South Carolina's CRCF definition also covers facilities that offer a protected environment for adults with mental illness or disabilities, so county disabilities boards and the Department of Mental Health operate small licensed community residences alongside senior communities.
Our directory labels those residences and does not give them senior facility pages, since they are not general senior placements. They appear on the full roster so the count matches DPH's data.
