Find Senior Living & Care in Ferndale, MI

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19,190

Population of Ferndale

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2,277

Residents aged 65 and older in Ferndale

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1135

Senior Living & Care Options in Ferndale

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$6,631/Month

Average cost of Senior Living & Care in the area.

Ferndale, with a population of 19,190, is home to 2,277 residents aged 65 and older. The city offers 1135 senior living and care options. The average monthly cost of senior living & care in the area is $6,631.

A week of errands in Ferndale, MI, doesn't have to hinge on a car. The City runs its own ride program, Ferndale SMART Transportation, and any resident can use it. The City calls it a good option for seniors, people with disabilities, and anyone with limited ways to get around.

Those rides reach anywhere within five miles of Ferndale, MI. Each vehicle has a lift for a wheelchair, scooter, cane, or walker. Riders are picked up at the curb, whether they're leaving home or heading back from a stop. Service runs on weekdays and is booked two days ahead, so a standing weekly outing is simple to plan.

Downtown centers on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Nine Mile Road. The Downtown Development Authority says its sidewalks are comfortably wide, and walk signals stop traffic at the push of a button. That makes a stroll to lunch, or to the Ferndale Area District Library at 222 E. Nine Mile Road, less of a dash between cars.

Longer trips can go by bus. SMART lists several fixed routes for Ferndale, MI, among them Woodward Local, FAST Woodward, and Nine Mile Crosstown.

Weather shapes any routine. Climate figures here come from NOAA's Detroit City Airport station, which sits outside Ferndale, MI. Its 30-year normals, 1991 to 2020, show that January's average low is 19.8°F and July's average high is 83.5°F. Put simply, winter nights fall well below freezing, and summer days are warm.

Medicare lists no acute care hospital inside Ferndale, MI. Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital, at 3601 W. 13 Mile Road in Royal Oak, MI, is an acute care hospital, and it has an emergency department. Corewell Health lists the hospital as open 24 hours a day. Parking there is free day and night, which helps family members who visit.

Lower on this page, a short guide covers each care type, from home care to nursing homes, and each one closes with questions for calls and tours. More local help for older adults sits in the questions near the bottom. You can browse senior living in Ferndale, MI, here at no cost and without an account, then reach out to the providers that interest you.

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Ferndale, MI at a Glance

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Ferndale SMART Transportation offers City rides with lifts, booked two days ahead.
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The Ferndale Senior Group, for ages 55 and up, meets in Hazel Park, MI.
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Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital is in Royal Oak, MI.
Weather icon
January low 19.8°F, July high 83.5°F (NOAA normals, Detroit City Airport).

Home Care in Ferndale, Michigan

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Through home care in Ferndale, MI, a paid aide visits the house, so daily life can stay on familiar streets. Aides help with what nurses and social workers call activities of daily living. Those are basics like washing up, getting dressed, and remembering pills. Aides can also cook, do the laundry, pick up groceries, and keep someone company. A schedule might be two mornings a week or a long shift every day. It can change as needs do. Home health care is a separate thing, ordered by a doctor when someone needs a nurse or therapist at home. Home care tends to make sense while the stairs, bathroom, and kitchen still work and the help needed comes at set times. Because Ferndale, MI, lies wholly inside Oakland County, county services are the ones to pair with a private agency. One to know about is OakAlert, the county's free emergency alert system. Anyone living in Ferndale, MI, can sign up for its alerts by text, email, phone call, or app. For a person who lives alone, that means urgent local news can get through even with the radio off. Agencies differ a lot, so a few calls go a long way. Make sure to ask how an agency screens and trains aides before they start. Another point is whether one steady aide will usually come, and who covers the days that aide is out sick. The shortest shift on offer is useful to learn too, along with whether hours can grow later. It helps to ask who manages the aides, and how often that manager visits the house in person. Since winter mornings get cold here, it's fair to ask how the agency plans for bad roads and late starts. For errands, ask whether aides can drive clients and whose car they'd use. A single page listing each task, and when in the week it's needed, gives every agency the same picture. Keep that page by the phone while you call two or three of the home care agencies around Ferndale, MI, below, and note who answers each point most clearly. The average price of Home Health services in the area is $31 - $33 per hour.
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Independent Living & Active Adult Living in Ferndale, Michigan

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Independent living in Ferndale, MI, fits people who'd like their own apartment, minus the mowing and repairs. They handle personal care on their own. Retirement communities and other independent living communities take the upkeep off your hands. Most add some mix of dining, social events, and rides. The package varies, so it pays to see what's included on paper. What lies outside counts just as much. Fourteen City parks cover 89 acres. Walking paths, places to sit, a splash pad, and a dog run are among their amenities. Wilson Park was rebuilt recently, and the City lists a fully ADA-accessible walking path throughout it, plus new benches and picnic tables. Under an arrangement between the two cities, people who live in Ferndale, MI, swim as residents at the Oak Park Community Pool in Oak Park, MI. There, the City's Saturday-morning water aerobics class is low impact and meant for adults of all ages and abilities. Every summer, Nine on Nine fills Schiffer Park, the City's only downtown park, with free Sunday concerts. Downtown also has a Self-Guided Art Walk, and at least one bench there was designed by students from Cranbrook Academy of Art. The district library offers free Wi-Fi without a card. It also has a seed library, where gardeners borrow packets and return seeds after the harvest. For classes, Oakland Community College gives adults 60 and older a discount on in-person Community Education courses. When you visit a community, it's good to ask which costs come with the base monthly fee and which appear as extras. Another useful question is whether there's a community van, or whether staff help residents schedule rides. Make sure to ask how residents propose new clubs and outings, and what the pet policy says. Plans change, so it helps to know if assisted living or memory care shares the campus. Sharing a lunch with residents reveals the mood of a place better than a brochure. Bring one list of questions to every independent living option near Ferndale, MI, below, and picture an ordinary Tuesday in each.
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Assisted Living in Ferndale, Michigan

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Assisted living in Ferndale, MI, suits someone who needs a hand with personal care every day but still values a private apartment. Typical help includes showers, getting dressed, medicine reminders, and an escort to meals. Here, trained staff give that care in person, which independent living doesn't offer. They follow a plan written for each resident and update it over time. A nursing home is the step up for daily skilled nursing, while assisted living is the lighter, less medical choice. In Michigan, a license name offers a useful clue. State law defines a home for the aged as a licensed setting that gives room, board, and supervised personal care to 21 or more unrelated people age 55 and over. So when a community you're touring has 21 or more residents, it's reasonable to ask whether it holds a home for the aged license. The answer helps you understand what kind of setting it is. On the tour, find out how staff decide what help a newcomer gets, and when they review that plan. You'll also want to hear who gives out medicine, how many staff cover the night shift, and how fast a call light gets answered. Getting the monthly rate in writing matters, along with the charges that rise as care increases. It helps to hear the routine after a fall, and the steps for welcoming a resident home from a hospital stay. It's also fair to ask how much of a resident's own furniture and art can come along. If a couple hopes to move in together, you could ask how the community handles two different levels of care in one apartment. Some families also ask whether a resident may keep a current doctor and pharmacy, and when staff phone relatives. Try to stop by at a mealtime, when the tone between staff and residents is easy to read. A return trip on another day, at another hour, often fills in what the first visit missed. Then narrow the list of assisted living communities in Ferndale, MI, down to a few, and go back to each with your notes. The average price of care for Assisted Living in the area is $4,899 - $5,202 per month.
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Memory Care in Ferndale, Michigan

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Memory care in Ferndale, MI, is a form of dementia care for people living with Alzheimer's disease or a similar illness. It's meant for the point when safety depends on a secured building and specially trained staff. Beyond the help assisted living gives, it usually adds doors that lock or sound an alarm and a fenced garden or courtyard. Days follow a predictable rhythm, with activities shaped around memory loss. The move often comes when keeping someone safe at home takes more supervision than one caregiver can give. A little reading before the first tour can help. MDHHS, the state's health and human services department, supports the Michigan Dementia Roadmap, which the Michigan Dementia Coalition created. The department lists caregiver resources alongside it. Reading those first gives you words for what you'll see and ideas for what to ask. During a visit, it's good to know what dementia training the staff receive and how it's kept current. You might also find out how staff respond to a resident who heads for the door, grows uneasy toward evening, or is awake at night. Make sure to ask how staff encourage someone who skips meals or forgets to sip water, and how often they update family. It helps to picture the whole day, from breakfast to bedtime, including time spent outdoors. You could ask whether favorite music, family photos, or old routines become part of each resident's day. It's also fair to ask where the community draws the line on the care it can give, and what the next step looks like after that. The way staff calm a resident who's anxious or lost says more than any tour script. Ask, too, whether relatives may share meals and join activities, and how a newcomer is eased through the first weeks. Using one set of dementia care questions at every stop keeps the answers comparable. With those notes in hand, weigh the memory care communities near Ferndale, MI, below, and return to any that left a question open.
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Long Term Care & Skilled Nursing in Ferndale, Michigan

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Nursing homes in Ferndale, MI, and the towns around it give skilled nursing. That means nurses and therapists provide medical care every day. They're for people whose medical needs have grown too large for assisted living or memory care. Think of rehab following an operation, or an illness that calls for close nursing. Next to assisted living, a nursing home feels more like a clinic, with less privacy. In return, it brings medical care to the bedside. Memory care keeps a homier setting built around dementia, while a nursing home adds the medical side. Before a visit, you can look each home up on Medicare's Care Compare. It gives star ratings for health inspections, staffing, and quality, and it lists recent inspection results. Pull up two or three homes there and jot down what stands out. Then tour the skilled nursing options near Ferndale, MI, below that make your short list, and ask what a typical week of therapy looks like for a new resident. The average price of care for Long Term Care in the area is $10,701 - $11,363 per month.
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Compare Assisted Living Costs in Michigan

The chart below puts the average monthly cost of assisted living statewide beside the U.S. average.

For statewide costs and the ways families pay, our Michigan page covers four care types, each in its own section. Read about independent living, home care, assisted living, or nursing homes.

No section there prices memory care yet. When memory care questions come up, the AgeWays Information and Assistance line is a good first call. Its trained Resource Specialists explain local programs and services.

Michigan -
$5,050
National Average -
$5,350

Local Resources for Older Adults in Ferndale, MI

These programs, from the City, the area's aging agency, the regional bus system, and Medicare, serve older adults in Ferndale, MI. Each link leads to current hours, details, and who can take part.

  • Ferndale SMART Transportation. The City's curb-to-curb rides for residents, within five miles of the city, with exceptions for certain hospitals. Ferndale SMART Transportation
  • Ferndale Senior Programs. Activities for seniors from the Parks and Recreation Department, plus sign-ups for programs and trips. Senior Programs and Services
  • AgeWays Nonprofit Senior Services. Oakland County's Area Agency on Aging. It runs a weekday help line and a service locator, and it supports family caregivers. AgeWays
  • Long-Term Care Ombudsman at AgeWays. Free, trained helpers who speak up for residents of nursing homes, homes for the aged, adult foster care, and licensed assisted living. Ombudsman program
  • Ferndale Area District Library. On Nine Mile Road, with free Wi-Fi, public computers, and a seed library. Ferndale Area District Library
  • SMART ADA Paratransit. Curb-to-curb rides, booked ahead, for anyone a disability keeps from riding SMART buses. ADA Service
  • Medicare Care Compare. Star ratings and inspection results for nursing homes. Care Compare

Frequently Asked Questions

There's no City senior center in Ferndale, MI. Instead, older adults get activities through the Ferndale Parks and Recreation Department. Its Ferndale Senior Group is for people 55 and older. The group meets at 11 a.m. on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, at the Hazel Park Recreation Center in Hazel Park, MI.

The Recreation Center is at 620 W. Woodward Heights Blvd. Members receive the group's newsletter. If you're touring communities, it's good to ask whether any residents already go to the group's meetings and how they get there.

Older adults in Ferndale, MI, are served by AgeWays Nonprofit Senior Services, an Area Agency on Aging. The State of Michigan's list calls it Region 1-B and assigns it Oakland County and five more counties. On weekdays, AgeWays runs an Information and Assistance line. Trained Resource Specialists there explain the programs and services open to older adults.

AgeWays says most calls last about 15 minutes, and a request can also be sent online. Its service locator points to help with rides, lawn mowing, caregiver respite, ramp building, and friendly visitor programs. One call is a simple way to learn what's out there before choosing any kind of care.

Yes. The City of Ferndale points older adults to Meals on Wheels, which brings prepared hot meals to people 60 and older. AgeWays' meals directory lists a Meals on Wheels program that serves Ferndale, MI. It delivers to homebound people 60 and older, with no financial eligibility requirements.

Meals usually arrive Monday through Friday. AgeWays keeps the program's contact details in that directory. When you call, it's good to ask about weekends, special diets, and how soon deliveries can start, so the plan covers the whole week.

AgeWays offers free online lessons to family caregivers in the six counties it serves, Oakland County among them. Topics include dementia care, hard behaviors that can come with dementia, fall prevention, and self-care. AgeWays also lists caregiver support groups across those counties. Most are led by a social worker or another professional.

Groups change over time, so AgeWays suggests calling before you go to confirm a group still meets and takes new members. It also suggests trying more than one group. The online lessons can fill the time between meetings.

Oakland County's Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program is hosted by AgeWays, as part of a statewide program. Ombudsmen are trained advocates. They serve people living in adult foster care homes, homes for the aged, nursing homes, and licensed assisted living. Their help is free and confidential.

An ombudsman is someone outside the community to talk with when something doesn't sit right. AgeWays lists how to reach the program. Before reaching out, a few written notes, with dates, names, and what happened, keep the conversation clear.

SMART, the bus system that serves Oakland County, has two more options. SMART Connector gives curb-to-curb rides by reservation on weekdays, within 10 miles of where a trip starts. Riders can reserve medical trips as far as six days out. SMART's ADA Paratransit serves people who, because of a disability, can't ride SMART's fixed-route buses.

Paratransit takes an application and ADA certification, so it's smart to apply before rides are needed. Other Connector trips can be booked up to two days ahead. SMART's own listing for Ferndale, MI, also names the City's ride program as a Community Partnership Program run by the City of Ferndale.

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Checked Oct. 9, 2026: SMART, Services by Community, SMART, ADA Service, Ferndale SMART Transportation, Senior Programs, City Parks, Parks Planning, Park Rentals, Pool Access, OakAlert sign-up, Ferndale Downtown Development Authority, Nine on Nine, Public Art, U.S. Census Bureau, CMS hospital data, Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital, Michigan Area Agencies on Aging, AgeWays, AgeWays help line, AgeWays Meals on Wheels, AgeWays caregiver learning, AgeWays Caregiver Support Groups, AgeWays Long-Term Care Ombudsman, Ferndale Area District Library, Oakland Community College, NOAA climate normals, MCL 333.20106, Dementia in Michigan, Medicare Care Compare, and CMS Five-Star Quality Rating System.