This presentation introduces the background and first results of a study exploring family life and care among couples in care homes, where only one partner is needs-tested and the other is an accompanying co-habiting spouse. In 2012, a co-habitation guarantee came into effect in Sweden, giving older people in care homes the right to continue living with their spouse as part of a reasonable standard of life, regardless if the accompanying spouse is relatively healthy. Since the guarantee, about 300 couples per year choose to live together in care homes despite only one being needs-assessed. Little is known about their conditions for family life in the care home, which is an ambiguous environment that is the couple’s legal home, a shared space with other needs-tested older people, and a workplace for care staff with institutional characteristics. Couples with unequal health needs in care homes blur the spatial distinction between family home and the formal care organization, since the formal care environment also becomes a site for the couple’s family life and mutual caring. Few studies consider the experiences of couples living together in care homes, and there is also limited knowledge of relatives’ roles in the care home in the long term (Davies & Nolan, 2006). This ethnographic study contributes to this gap using participant observations, conjoint interviews with couples and focus groups with staff in five Swedish municipalities.