Safest assisted living in Oakland, ranked by inspection data
On this page5 sections
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 Oakland is Piedmont Gardens #1, a 321-bed community with a 9.9 FYI Safety Score. It has 20 state inspections on record across 32 years of licensing, zero citations, and zero substantiated complaints. A 32-year clean record at a community of that scale is rare statewide and meaningfully different from what most Bay Area markets offer.
Below are the 15 facilities at the top of the Oakland 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.
Oakland has 31 licensed assisted living facilities, with a mix of small care homes and several larger communities including Piedmont Gardens.
The 15 safest assisted living facilities in Oakland
The ranking is the FYI Safety Score on a 1.0 to 10.0 scale, computed from the public state inspection record. Because Oakland's pool is on the smaller side, this represents nearly half of the entire local market sorted by safety.
| # | Facility | Score | State visits | Years licensed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Piedmont Gardens #1 (321 beds) | 9.9 | 20 | 32 |
| 2 | Bellaken Garden (58 beds) | 9.6 | 8 | 26 |
| 3 | Holy Family Home (19 beds) | 9.6 | 5 | 33 |
| 4 | Heart & Soul Communities (6 beds) | 9.6 | 7 | 19 |
| 5 | Good Shepherd Vista (22 beds) | 9.5 | 11 | 9 |
| 6 | East Bay Assisted Living (68 beds) | 9.5 | 4 | 16 |
| 7 | Dimond Care II (6 beds) | 9.5 | 4 | 14 |
| 8 | Nacila Senior Living (3 beds) | 9.4 | 4 | 2 |
| 9 | Ivy Park at Oakland Hills (100 beds) | 9.4 | 11 | 1 |
| 10 | Connected Living Oakland (5 beds) | 9.4 | 9 | 4 |
| 11 | Merrill Gardens at Rockridge (150 beds) | 9.4 | 33 | 6 |
| 12 | House of Psalms Assisted Living For Seniors (23 beds) | 9.3 | 5 | 1 |
| 13 | Grand Lake Vista (15 beds) | 9.2 | 3 | 1 |
| 14 | Lakeside Park (76 beds) | 8.8 | 28 | 11 |
| 15 | Elder Ashram (90 beds) | 8.7 | 35 | 5 |
Scores reflect citation history, complaint patterns, and recency — see our methodology. Linked facility names open the full inspection record.
Two things worth noticing.
First, Piedmont Gardens #1 is in its own tier. Across the entire Bay Area portion of our analysis, very few facilities have a 30-plus-year clean record at that scale. If you're looking for a community-style option in Oakland, the top of this list is where to start.
Second, the rest of the top 15 follows the familiar pattern: a mix of small care homes and a few mid-size communities with mostly clean records. Several Oakland facilities in the top 15 have been licensed for over 20 years.
What the distribution looks like across the rest of Oakland
| Score | What it means | Facilities | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.0–9.9 | Excellent. Strong record, no significant recent findings | 13 | 42% |
| 8.0–8.9 | Good. Minor history, recent record is clean | 7 | 23% |
| 6.0–7.9 | Fair. Some recent findings worth asking about | 5 | 16% |
| 4.0–5.9 | Poor. Substantial recent record | 3 | 10% |
| <4.0 | Severe. Concerning pattern, dig into the raw record | 3 | 10% |
About 65% of Oakland facilities score Good or Excellent, above the state average. About 19% score Poor or Severe. The market is healthy at the top but has a meaningful concerning tail.
There are zero Perfect 10 facilities in Oakland. 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
We publish this part for the same reason we publish the top. A facility on this list isn't necessarily dangerous today. It's a facility where the public record contains enough recent findings that the right move is to dig into the raw inspection history and ask specific questions before deciding.
| # | Facility | Score | Findings | State visits | Years licensed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Opal Care LLC (15 beds) | 1.0 | 31 / 58 / 19 | 68 | 9 |
| 2 | Oakland Heights Senior Living (197 beds) | 1.9 | 7 / 35 / 34 | 92 | 11 |
| 3 | Lake Park Senior Living (275 beds) | 2.7 | 0 / 21 / 20 | 59 | 3 |
Findings column: Type A citations / Type B citations / substantiated complaints. Scores also reflect recency weighting — see our methodology.
Oakland's Severe-tier list includes Oakland Heights Senior Living (197 beds) and Lake Park Senior Living (275 beds), both larger communities with substantial recent inspection records. Opal Care LLC is unusual at the top of the concerning list: a 15-bed facility with 31 Type A citations, indicating a small operator with a heavily-cited record.
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 Oakland compare to the rest of California?
Oakland is roughly average for California. The average score across 31 Oakland facilities is 7.66, similar to San Jose. Within the Bay Area, Oakland's average sits above Fremont (5.97) and below San Francisco (7.62) by a narrow margin.
A few other California cities are worth a comparison: Modesto sits at 8.34 (highest among major CA cities), San Diego and Fresno at 8.02 (well above), Riverside at 7.99 with zero severely-rated facilities, and Pasadena at 6.85 (below Oakland).
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. A high score is not a guarantee, and a low score is not a verdict.
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 Oakland?
Among the 31 licensed assisted living facilities in Oakland, the highest FYI Safety Score is held by Piedmont Gardens #1, a 321-bed community scoring 9.9 with zero citations and zero substantiated complaints across 20 state inspections and 32 years of licensing. A 32-year clean record at a community of that size is exceptional.
How many assisted living facilities are in Oakland?
There are 31 licensed assisted living facilities in Oakland. The market is smaller by count than nearby San Jose or San Francisco, but includes several large communities with strong records.
Is Oakland a safe market for assisted living?
Oakland's market is roughly average for California. The average FYI Safety Score across 31 facilities is 7.66. 3 facilities score in the Severe range. The top of the market includes some of the strongest large-community options in the Bay Area.
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.