Senior Placement Questions, Answered Plainly

No. Hamssa LLC is a senior living placement agency, sometimes called a referral agency. It does not own or run a care home and no one lives at its Torrance address. Placement specialist Hamssa Benrekia helps families find and compare licensed assisted living communities, board and care homes and memory care homes, then goes with them on tours.

No. Hamssa’s help is free for families. She is paid a referral fee by the care home after a move-in, which is the usual arrangement for placement agencies in California. The fee is not billed to your family, the amount differs from home to home, and if the best fit for your parent is a home that pays her nothing, she still recommends it. You are never obliged to choose a home she suggests. How placement agencies are paid

Hamssa Benrekia. She works alone, with no employees: she is the person who answers, listens, builds the shortlist and comes on the tours. She holds an RCFE Administrator Certificate and worked in hospice, palliative care and home health from 2013 to 2024 before focusing on placement. More about Hamssa

Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm and Saturday and Sunday 9 am to 2 pm, Pacific time, by phone, text or WhatsApp at (310) 594-0694. Urgent calls are taken until 9 pm. She answers right away unless she is on a tour or another call, and calls back as soon as she is free.

English, Arabic and Spanish. You can talk with her, and tour homes with her, in any of the three.

Families meet Hamssa in person at the homes, on tour. The Torrance address is a mailing address, not a place for meetings. Most first conversations happen by phone.

Torrance, Redondo Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates, San Pedro, Harbor City, Carson, Gardena and Long Beach. If your parent lives elsewhere in the South Bay or Harbor area, call and ask. See all service areas

Hamssa asks about your parent’s care needs, health conditions, daily routine, preferences and monthly budget. She then suggests a short list of homes she has toured herself and checked against state licensing records, schedules the tours and goes with you. If you choose a home, she can negotiate the rate with the administrator when it is close to your budget, and she checks in after the move. How it works, step by step

It depends on your parent’s needs, the paperwork a home requires, and which homes have an opening. A hospital discharge can move in days when the family, the discharge planner and the home all respond quickly; a planned move usually takes longer because families visit several homes. Hamssa will tell you honestly what is realistic. Hospital discharge placement

Yes, personally, every time. She schedules the visits and goes with you, and gives you background on each home’s owner and how it has cared for other residents. Several families mention in their reviews that she drove them from home to home. Read the reviews

No. The decision always belongs to the senior and the family. You can tour as many or as few homes as you like, take time to think, or decide that staying at home with help is the better choice for now.

Yes. She checks in a couple of days after move-in and again a couple of weeks later, and stays available after that for resources or, if the home turns out not to be the right fit, another placement. Day-to-day care is the responsibility of the licensed home, and concerns about care can also be raised with California’s Community Care Licensing Division.

In California both are licensed by the Department of Social Services as residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs). A board and care home is small, usually a house in a residential neighborhood with a handful of residents. An assisted living community is a larger building with more apartments, staff and amenities. RCFE vs assisted living

Yes. She helps families compare memory care in larger communities with small board and care homes that accept residents living with dementia, and explains what to look at on a tour. She does not diagnose or give medical advice; bring the doctor’s input to the conversation. Memory care placement

Yes. Tell her the expected discharge date and who the discharge planner or social worker is. She has worked alongside case workers and social workers during discharges, and can line up homes to visit while the paperwork is prepared. Hospital discharge placement

No. Her work is with independent living (retirement) communities, assisted living communities, board and care homes and memory care. A skilled nursing facility is a different, medically staffed kind of facility licensed by the California Department of Public Health, and admission there follows a physician’s order for skilled care, usually arranged from the hospital. If your parent needs skilled nursing, the hospital discharge planner is the right first contact.

It varies with the home, the room and the level of care your parent needs. In Hamssa's own searches in Torrance, prices start at about $5,000 a month for a shared room; a private room or more care costs more. Tell Hamssa your monthly budget and she will be direct about which kinds of homes fit it. What board and care costs in California

Medicare does not pay for room and board in assisted living. Medi-Cal has an Assisted Living Waiver program with limited capacity and its own rules. Hamssa does not decide eligibility or process benefits, but she can point you to resources for applying for the Assisted Living Waiver or CalAIM services, and talk through which homes may fit your situation. Medi-Cal Assisted Living Waiver explained

Every care home Hamssa suggests is licensed by the State of California, and she reads its licensing record, citations and complaints before suggesting it. You can check any home yourself: the Community Care Licensing Division publishes each facility’s license status and inspection reports online. How to check an RCFE license