My parents were in independent living (IL) at St. Paul's Towers in Oakland between 2001 and 2015;…read morein 2014 my father died, and in 2016 my mother moved into assisted living (AL). She died at 101 in December 2025. Both parents had stays in skilled nursing (SN), which were horrible. If I had to grade St. Paul's Towers, I would give it a 'B' for IL, a 'C-' for AL, and an 'F' for SN. Almost all the positive online reviews of St. Paul's Towers are posted by people in IL, or even by people who haven't even lived there. But a few reviewers have noted that SPT has gone downhill, especially since it was taken over by Covia and Front Porch. SPT has drastically reduced resident amenities and care, including AL activities, and important positions go unfilled for months and years. The food also went from excellent to bad.
This review is a very short version of my complete review, which you can find at www.sharonhudson.com/SPT. Worth reading.
The staff that residents interact with every day are friendly, caring, and helpful, so the IL atmosphere is excellent. But bad management has been a serious problem. Residents' contracts give them almost no rights and place no limits on fee increases. When residents eventually need assistance, it is their children who end up "paying" for their contracts, by having to fight with management, train and supervise employees, etc.
For 10 years, I spent 10-20 hours per week in AL visiting Mom. Quality of life in AL depends on competent management, which we experienced for only a few years. Nobody was in charge of apartment maintenance; it was up to me to report burnt-out light bulbs, etc. The CNAs were kind and caring, but they were essentially untrained and unsupervised, except by me and the senior CNAs, who "trained" the new ones, despite the language barriers. Almost none spoke idiomatic English, which is a huge problem and safety risk for people with dementia. Residents cannot "cooperate" with people they don't understand. However, in mid-2025 they hired a new AL director, so maybe things will improve.
Trying to get staff to involve my mother in AL activities became a real hassle after COVID. People with dementia cannot "ask" for activities, and staff should encourage residents to engage in activities. Mom never got to even a few of the activities she might have enjoyed. It's just a lot easier to leave a resident sitting in their room. BTW, if a resident is unable to remember what they did recently, you will have no way of knowing how they are being treated.
My mother had a large, sunny apartment, so we had the environment to do fun activities together. I also needed to have an office/computer there. But many of the units were too small for any of that, too small even for the resident to host family visits. There are no AL units large enough for a couple; it was devastating for my father to be separated from his wife of 70 years. Nobody has access to nature from their unit, except what they can manage on their balcony. There is a gorgeous garden on the second floor, but is mostly inaccessible to AL residents who cannot get there on their own.
The nursing staff currently at SPT, whom residents interact with every day, are competent and caring, but the major medical interactions we had with SPT were terrible. Again, bad management and training. For example, in 2014, my father spent a few months in AL before dying. Several times he ended up in the Kaiser emergency room with serious infections, and once someone at Kaiser reported SPT to the county for elder abuse.
In 2019, Mom broke her leg, and had to recuperate in SN on the 22nd floor of SPT. That was hell for both of us. I had to go to SPT most of every day just to get her off that floor. One day I found Mom crying, and when I asked what was wrong, she blurted out, "I just want to be treated like a human being!" I saw lots of call lights not being responded to, and distressed residents being ignored. When Mom was able to walk again, the medical director (unsuccessfully) tried to force her to move permanently to SN; instead she returned to her apartment, where she lived safely for another six years. During COVID, SPT was on lockdown for about three years--much longer than other places. Every time one of their 250-300 residents or staff tested positive, all the AL people had to stay alone in their apartments alone for two weeks. That too was unnecessary and abusive. You should find out how much legal power the facility medical director has over the residents' living situations, and what is their philosophy and history.
A year before my mother died, $10,000-worth of jewelry was stolen from her apartment. Long story short: After the theft, which arose from bad management and low staffing, SPT never informed staff or other AL residents that a theft had occurred, which meant that others could not prevent another incident or even know if they had been victimized. And of course, they stonewalled any compensation.
