Apartment buildings designed primarily to serve independent seniors may offer assisted living services to those residents who need assistance, while other apartment buildings have been designed specifically as assisted living settings and feature down-sized, private apartments with individual kitchens or kitchenettes. Board and Lodging settings may vary greatly in size, some resembling small homes and others more like large apartment buildings. Residents have private or shared rooms, but do not have individual kitchens. Condo residents hold title to their own living unit and share ownership of the common areas with other owners in the development. Residents pay an entrance fee as well as a monthly fee for a package of services specified in the residents' contract, which includes a residence, services and nursing care when needed.
Cooperatives are another form of ownership housing in a multi-family building or complex.
The development is owned by a corporation on behalf of the occupants, who buy shares in the corporation in exchange for the right to occupy a specific living unit. A few subsidized buildings offer a coordinated assisted living program for their residents. A few developers and communities have used tax credits and local resources, rather than federal subsidies, to provide housing for low-income people. Although some of these buildings offer few services, others offer a broad range of services such as meals, housekeeping, transportation, service coordination and assisted living services. Non-Certified Boarding Care Homes are licensed as health care facilities by the Minnesota Department of Health, but they are often quite homelike and may seem more like an assisted living setting.