Many facilities have sprung up in the Detroit area and label themselves as “senior housing.” These facilities specifically claim that they are not nursing homes or assisted living facilities but seem to look just like them. Moreover, these facilities almost always will have a “contractor” on the premises who will provide medical care to a person for an additional fee. Senior housing is risky business. Senior citizens who may require long-term care or the more supervised setting that an assisted living facility will provide are many times at risk for death or very serious injury in facilities that lack appropriate levels of supervision. Our law firm is currently involved in several very serious cases involving wrongful death of individuals living in senior facilities including a fire death case Downriver caused by a woman with severe dementia who was permitted to smoke up to 40 cigarettes per night in a facility that had a “no smoking policy.” In another case at the same facility, a woman jumped from a third-floor window in a unit that is represented to be a lock down dementia unit. Senior housing is a complex issue. Where a person who needs supervision should live depends on many factors. People are urged to meet and carefully consult with a physician or person specifically trained in geriatric care before simply deciding that “this place looks nice.”