The unequal availability of affordable assisted living units in Florida's counties

The supply of affordable assisted living facilities (ALFs) is now insufficient to meet the demands of low-income, frail older persons. This gap between demand and supply is much more apparent in some locations than others. This article uses various measures of locational inequality to assess the extent to which counties in Florida have less than their fair share of ALFs, particularly in comparison to the locations of Medicaid nursing home beds. It employs least squares regression models to identify the demographic and economic antecedents underlying the variation in the number and prevalence of affordable ALF units and Medicaid nursing home beds. The findings show that a large percentage of the older population who are vulnerable are underserved by affordable ALFs and that it is possible to explain adequately the variation in the number but not the unequal prevalence of affordable ALF units in Florida's counties.