Safest assisted living in Irvine, ranked by inspection data
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This is one of our California city safety reports. See the other markets or read the methodology behind the FYI Safety Score.
The safest assisted living facility in Irvine is Irvine Care Home, a 6-bed small care home with an FYI Safety Score of 9.6. It has 5 state inspections on record across 14 years of licensing, zero citations, and zero substantiated complaints.
Irvine is a small market by facility count (19 licensed facilities) but a strong one by safety profile. 12 of those 19 facilities (63%) score in the Excellent range, the highest concentration of strong-rated facilities in our 19-city analysis.
Below are the 15 facilities at the top of the Irvine ranking and how the rest of the market looks once you zoom out. The data was pulled from California state inspection records in May 2026.
A note on geography: this list covers only the City of Irvine. Nearby Anaheim, Santa Ana, and other Orange County cities have their own facility rosters and their own lists.
The 15 safest assisted living facilities in Irvine
Because Irvine has only 19 total facilities, the 15 below represent nearly the entire market sorted by safety. Rank position here matters less than the underlying record; even the lower-ranked facilities on this list are above-average for California.
| # | Facility | Score | State visits | Years licensed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irvine Care Home (6 beds) | 9.6 | 5 | 14 |
| 2 | Northwood Care Home (6 beds) | 9.5 | 9 | 12 |
| 3 | Woodbridge Terrace (180 beds) | 9.5 | 25 | 4 |
| 4 | Irvine Cottage #7 (6 beds) | 9.5 | 6 | 2 |
| 5 | Irvine Cottage #3 (6 beds) | 9.5 | 4 | 2 |
| 6 | Irvine Cottage #5 (6 beds) | 9.5 | 4 | 2 |
| 7 | Irvine Cottage #1 (6 beds) | 9.5 | 6 | 2 |
| 8 | Irvine Cottage #2 (6 beds) | 9.5 | 4 | 2 |
| 9 | Irvine Cottage #4 (6 beds) | 9.5 | 5 | 2 |
| 10 | Blue Jasmine Villa (6 beds) | 9.4 | 35 | 10 |
| 11 | Whispering Oaks - Waverly (6 beds) | 9.4 | 9 | 18 |
| 12 | Atria Golden Creek (155 beds) | 9.2 | 13 | 27 |
| 13 | R & R Care, Inc. (6 beds) | 8.9 | 6 | 21 |
| 14 | Primacare Home at Roxbury (6 beds) | 7.4 | 4 | 6 |
| 15 | Regents Point (399 beds) | 7.4 | 18 | 44 |
Scores reflect citation history, complaint patterns, and recency — see our methodology. Linked facility names open the full inspection record.
Two things worth noticing.
First, the entire top of the Irvine list is small care homes with clean records. The market doesn't have many large communities; the strongest options here are 6-bed homes.
Second, Irvine is one of the cleanest small markets we've analyzed by distribution shape. 12 of 19 facilities Excellent, 0 Poor, only 2 Severe (and both of those are newly-licensed). The supply of strong options is concentrated and reliable.
What the distribution looks like across the rest of Irvine
| Score | What it means | Facilities | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.0–9.9 | Excellent. Strong record, no significant recent findings | 12 | 63% |
| 8.0–8.9 | Good. Minor history, recent record is clean | 1 | 5% |
| 6.0–7.9 | Fair. Some recent findings worth asking about | 4 | 21% |
| 4.0–5.9 | Poor. Substantial recent record | 0 | 0% |
| <4.0 | Severe. Concerning pattern, dig into the raw record | 2 | 11% |
The Irvine distribution is unusual: 63% Excellent, only 5% Good, 21% Fair, zero Poor, 11% Severe. The market is dominated by either strong options or a small number of new entrants with early issues; there's almost no middle.
There are zero Perfect 10 facilities in Irvine. Perfect 10 is an earned distinction reserved for facilities with at least 5 years of inspection history, at least 10 state visits, zero citations across the entire record, and zero substantiated complaints. It's rare statewide; fewer than 0.1% of California facilities qualify.
The other end of the list
| # | Facility | Score | Findings | State visits | Years licensed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Hills of Sierra Chula (6 beds) | 1.4 | 11 / 5 / 7 | 17 | 1 |
| 2 | The Hills of Sierra Majorca (6 beds) | 2.1 | 6 / 7 / 4 | 13 | 1 |
Findings column: Type A citations / Type B citations / substantiated complaints. Scores also reflect recency weighting — see our methodology.
Both Severe-tier facilities in Irvine are newly-licensed (1 year) 6-bed small homes with significant early citations. New operators sometimes have rough first years; whether that pattern continues is what the underlying record will show over time.
If you're looking at one of these and the score is concerning, the right move is to click through, read the record, then call the facility and ask them directly what happened and what changed.
How does Irvine compare to the rest of California?
Irvine is above the state average. The average score across 19 facilities is 8.15, similar to other strong markets like San Diego, Fresno, and Modesto. The standout feature is the concentration of Excellent-rated facilities; Irvine has the highest share of any small market in our analysis.
A few other California cities are worth a comparison: Modesto sits at 8.34 (highest overall), Anaheim at 7.61 (nearby OC market with weaker distribution), Riverside at 7.99 with zero severely-rated facilities, and Pasadena at 6.85 (well below).
How to use this list
The score is the gut check. The visit is the field test. The conversations with current residents and frontline staff are the verification.
In a small market like Irvine where the supply is limited, the work of comparing facilities matters as much as the work of evaluating any individual one. Even strong facilities here have less inspection history to work with than larger markets.
Browse all California assisted living facilities by safety score on the AssistedLiving.fyi map.
For families researching what to do with this information once they have it, the companion guides are Why Yelp reviews don't predict quality of care and How to do a safety vibe check without trusting marketing.
Data: Computed from California Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) inspection records, ingested into AssistedLiving.fyi. Safety scores reflect the inspection record as of May 2026 and may change as new visits are documented. The FYI Safety Score is provided for informational purposes only and is not a guarantee or prediction of the safety, quality, or suitability of any facility. Always visit in person before deciding.
Frequently asked questions
What is the safest assisted living facility in Irvine?
Among the 19 licensed assisted living facilities in Irvine, the highest FYI Safety Score is held by Irvine Care Home, a 6-bed small care home scoring 9.6 with zero citations and zero substantiated complaints across 5 state inspections and 14 years of licensing.
How many assisted living facilities are in Irvine?
There are 19 licensed assisted living facilities in Irvine. It is one of the smaller markets in our California analysis by facility count, though the city itself is large by population. Most options are small care homes.
Is Irvine a safe market for assisted living?
Irvine has an above-average safety profile. The average FYI Safety Score across 19 facilities is 8.15, well above the California state average. 12 of the 19 facilities (63%) score in the Excellent range (9.0 or above). 2 facilities score in the Severe range, both newly-licensed small homes.
How is the FYI Safety Score calculated?
The FYI Safety Score is a 1.0 to 10.0 rating computed from California Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) inspection records. It weighs three components: Type A citations (immediate-risk violations), Type B citations (less severe violations), and substantiated complaints. Recent findings count more than older ones. The full methodology is at assistedliving.fyi/safety-score. No facility can pay to improve their score.
What does a low safety score actually mean?
A low score reflects what state inspectors have documented over years of visits: citations, substantiated complaints, severity, and recency. It does not necessarily mean a facility is unsafe today. But it does mean the public record contains enough findings that families should ask specific questions and review the underlying inspection reports before deciding.
About the author
Steve Selzer is the founder of AssistedLiving.fyi. He started this work while searching for assisted living for his mom, who has dementia, after running into the same opaque pricing, sales calls, and impossible-to-read inspection records that every family in the same situation runs into. The site exists to make the information families actually need easier to find.