CommunityPlus Living Society is dedicated to the empowerment of all people to their limits, regardless of age or ability. We seek social justice and social equity through education, research & annual reporting, and urban planning, for a community that fits all of us.
- Education: free public training for families and caregivers, from safe patient handling to the everyday skills of caring for an aging or disabled loved one.
- Research & annual reporting: independent, openly published research on the real cost and shape of private care on Vancouver Island, like the survey below.
- Urban planning: a long-term vision for a fully accessible city block, where homes, shops, restaurants, and medical care are designed end to end for people of every ability.
The survey below is one of those free resources: an independent, island-wide look at what home care and senior living actually cost on Vancouver Island.
In-home care: hourly, overnight & live-in rates
Private home care is billed by the hour, with the per-hour rate easing as visits get longer (each visit carries fixed travel and setup time).
| Skilled | Nurse-supervised care: personal care, medications, transfers and lifts, and more complex needs. |
| Companion | Non-nurse support: company and supervision, meals, light housekeeping and errands. |
| Visit length | Skilled | Companion | All agencies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-hour visit | $54 / $55 / $46–70 (10) | $50 / $50 / $40–60 (10) | $52 / $51 / $40–70 (20) |
| 3-hour visit | $52 / $50 / $45–70 (15) | $47 / $46 / $39–60 (14) | $50 / $50 / $39–70 (29) |
| Service | Skilled | Companion | All agencies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overnight ($/night) | $378 / $380 / $350–400 (4) | $451 / $430 / $378–546 (3) | $409 / $400 / $350–546 (7) |
| Live-in ($/day) | $594 / $612 / $500–650 (4) | $539 / $483 / $350–840 (4) | $566 / $596 / $350–840 (8) |
Monthly equivalents: about $1,550/month for each daily hour of visits (so 2 hours a day ≈ $3,100/month); overnight coverage runs a median around $12,000/month, and live-in around $18,000/month.
Home care: key findings
- Among agencies that can actually staff seven-day care, hourly rates cluster tightly: a $50 median at 3 hours, $52 at 2 hours.
- Skilled (nurse-supervised) care runs only a few dollars above companion care, and the ranges overlap.
- Live-in is the most cost-efficient option per hour of coverage.
- Setting aside solo and single-community providers lifts the rate floor from the high-$30s into the low-$40s, a truer picture of what a viable agency charges.
Senior living: independent, assisted & long-term care
Facility costs depend heavily on the level of care, so we break them out by facility type: monthly accommodation cost by room. We count only facilities that reported a rate, and show a figure only where at least three facilities reported it.
| Room | Average | Median | Range | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $3,160 | $3,400 | $825–4,500 | 23 |
| 1-bedroom | $3,627 | $3,795 | $750–6,175 | 45 |
| 2-bedroom | $5,333 | $5,900 | $1,250–10,485 | 31 |
| Room | Average | Median | Range | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $6,152 | $6,330 | $3,050–8,900 | 4 |
| 1-bedroom | $5,151 | $4,050 | $3,225–9,900 | 8 |
| Room | Average | Median | Range | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $8,573 | $9,100 | $3,050–12,000 | 13 |
| 1-bedroom | $8,120 | $9,100 | $3,500–12,400 | 5 |
Room types reported by fewer than three facilities are omitted.
| Ownership | Average | Median | Range | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| For-profit (private) | $5,625 | $4,631 | $1,908–12,000 | 42 |
| Non-profit | $3,441 | $3,340 | $750–9,430 | 21 |
Two publicly subsidized (government) residences reported a median around $2,175/month.
| Service | Typical | Range | n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shower assist (per visit) | $36 | $30–42 | 8 |
| Bath (per visit) | $42 | $30–52 | 6 |
| Morning assist (per day) | $26 | $10–45 | 6 |
| Laundry (per month) | $66 | $39–100 | 5 |
| Medication management, twice daily (per month) | $600 | - | 5 |
| Companion care (per hour) | $64 | $46–80 | 4 |
| Second resident in suite (per month) | $793 | $500–900 | 21 |
Residential care: key findings
- Cost climbs sharply with care level: a studio runs a ~$3,400 median in independent living, ~$6,330 in assisted living, and ~$9,100 in long-term care.
- Non-profit residences cost far less than for-profit ($3,340 median versus $4,631) for comparable accommodation.
- Rent is rarely the whole bill: most facilities charge separately for care, from a few dollars per shower to ~$600/month for medication management.
How we run this survey
We contact every private home-care provider and senior-living facility we can identify on Vancouver Island and ask the same questions about rates, minimums and practices. For the home-care rates we report only agencies that serve more than one community and can staff a seven-day schedule, setting aside single-location operators and individual caregivers who can’t reliably cover a full week. For facilities we report only those that gave us a rate, and show a figure only where at least three reported it. Providers self-report; we aggregate the numbers and refresh them through the year. Sample sizes (n) appear throughout so thin figures are easy to spot.
Cite this survey
CommunityPlus Living Society. “Vancouver Island Home Care & Facility Cost Survey,” 2026 edition (updated May 2026). https://communitypluscare.ca/vancouver-island-care-cost-survey/
Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license: free to reuse, including commercially, with attribution and a link back to this page.
Put the numbers to work
Turn these figures into your own estimate, or dig deeper: