NJ Bill Would Regulate Thermostats In Nursing, Boarding Homes

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — 65 to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the temperature range assisted living facilities should be at in New Jersey, a trio of lawmakers say.

Last week, the Assembly Health Committee advanced A-3110, a bill that would establish temperature standards in certain housing and long-term care facilities.

The bill heads to the Assembly Speaker for further consideration. Read the full text.

If it becomes law, New Jersey’s nursing homes, residential health care facilities and dementia care homes would be required to make sure indoor temperatures do not exceed 81 degrees Fahrenheit or fall below 65 degrees. There would be exceptions for certain circumstances such as residents who have individual control of the temperature in their unit.

The New Jersey Commissioner of Health would also establish standards to ensure every rooming and boarding house in the state has an approved heating and cooling system capable of keeping the temperature between 81 and 65 degrees.

The bill’s sponsors included Assemblyman John McKeon of the 27th District, which encompasses Caldwell, Chatham Township, East Hanover, Essex Fells, Florham Park, Hanover, Harding, Livingston, Madison, Maplewood, Millburn, Roseland, South Orange and West Orange.

McKeon and the bill’s other sponsors in the Assembly, Anthony Verrelli and Valerie Vainieri Huttle, issued a joint statement about the bill:

“Everyone deserves to have a home environment that is safe and comfortable. Especially when it comes to sick and elderly residents in long-term care facilities, temperature plays an important role in terms of habitability. Any residential building that cannot keep temperatures cool in the summer and warm in the winter poses a threat to the health and well-being of its occupants. Establishing minimum and maximum temperature standards will protect residents from any problems that would arise from otherwise unlivable conditions.”

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