If you’ve started searching for assisted living or memory care in West San Jose, Ivy Park at San Tomas is one of the names that keeps coming up, and for good reason. It’s one of the newer buildings in this part of the valley, it sits on a quiet stretch of Williams Road that’s easy to reach from Campbell, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Willow Glen, and it offers both assisted living and a dedicated memory care neighborhood under one roof. I recently walked the community with my camera, and the photos throughout this post are the ones I took that day.
I’ve been selling homes in Silicon Valley for more than 23 years, and as a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS), and I wrote a chapter for the book Aging in Place Conversations: The Housing Edition. Most of my work is with longtime homeowners and the adult children helping them through a move. So I look at a place like this from two angles at once: what daily life is like for the person moving in, and what the decision means for the family home they’d be leaving behind. What follows is the guide I’d want a friend to have before booking a tour.
Key Takeaways
Where Ivy Park at San Tomas Is, and Why the Location Works
Ivy Park sits at 3930 Williams Road in the 95117 ZIP code of West San Jose, close to San Tomas Expressway and Saratoga Avenue. If you know this part of town, you know it’s a mix of 1950s and 1960s ranch homes, small apartment buildings and neighborhood shopping, which means the community feels tucked into a real neighborhood rather than stranded in a business park.
That location matters more than people expect. In my experience, the adult child who visits most often is the one who lives closest, and a lot of my clients’ kids live in Campbell, Santa Clara, Cupertino or Willow Glen. From any of those, Williams Road is a short drive on surface streets. O’Connor Hospital and Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara are both nearby, and Westgate, Valley Fair and Santana Row are close enough for an outing with family.
The two-story building wraps around a front drive with a covered drop-off, which makes appointments and family pickups a lot easier.
The building itself is two stories with a modern exterior, a covered drop-off at the main entrance and a gated design. Parking is on site, including guest spaces, so visiting doesn’t turn into a hunt for a spot on the street.
From MorningStar to Ivy Park: A Short History
Some families get confused when they search for this community, because older listings still call it MorningStar. The building opened in 2023 as MorningStar Memory Care at San Tomas. Around the start of 2025, according to family reviews, Oakmont Management Group took over operations and rebranded it as Ivy Park at San Tomas. Ivy Living is Oakmont’s assisted living and memory care brand, and it also runs Ivy Park at Los Gatos on Blossom Hill Road.
A change in operator is worth asking about on any tour. Several family reviews from 2025 describe turnover in leadership and activities staff during the transition, and later reviews say new directors were hired and things settled down. That’s a fairly common pattern after an ownership change, but you should ask directly how long the current executive director, director of nursing and memory care lead have been in their roles.
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Assisted Living and Evergreen Memory Care
Ivy Park at San Tomas is licensed by the California Department of Social Services as a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE), license number 435202874. That’s the license that covers assisted living and memory care in California. It isn’t a skilled nursing facility, so it’s built for people who need help with daily life, not round-the-clock medical care. If you’re still sorting out which level fits, I break down independent living vs. assisted living vs. memory care in a separate guide.
On the assisted living side, the community lists help with bathing, dressing, grooming, medication management, continence care, diabetes management, oxygen management, transfers and walking, plus escorts to meals and appointments. Memory care happens in a separate, secure neighborhood called Evergreen, designed for residents living with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. Evergreen adds a more structured daily routine, regular safety check-ins and closer help with meals and mobility.
That second level of care matters because of how common the need has become. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that about 7.2 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s dementia, and many of them start in assisted living before they need a memory care setting. A building that offers both can let a resident move down the hall instead of moving across town, which is a lot easier on everyone. I wrote more about moving a parent with dementia or cognitive decline if that’s where your family is.
The “7 Pillars of Care,” Translated Into Plain English
Ivy Park markets seven “pillars” of care at San Tomas. Here’s what each one means in practice, and what I’d ask about it.
- On-site primary and specialist care. The community partners with Pine Park Health, a medical group that runs primary care practices inside senior living communities, for doctor visits, specialist referrals and lab work on site. Ask whether your parent can keep their current doctor if they’d rather.
- On-site physical and occupational therapy. There’s a rehab room in the building, which means therapy after a fall or hospital stay doesn’t require a ride across town.
- Daily nursing coverage. The community says licensed staff support needs like diabetes management, injections, catheters and wound care. Ask exactly which hours a nurse is on site, and who passes medications on nights and weekends.
- Certified Dementia Practitioners. Ivy Park says all of its caregivers hold this credential from the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners.
- Opening Minds through Art. This is an established art program for people living with dementia. A study by Elizabeth Lokon and Jennifer Kinney of Miami University’s Scripps Gerontology Center, published in the journal Dementia, found that participants showed significantly more engagement and pleasure, and less disengagement, than during traditional arts and crafts activities.
- A monthly family support group. This one gets overlooked, but caregiving families need support too, and a professionally led group is a good sign that the community thinks about the whole family.
- The Superfoods Program. Daily snacks and smoothies made with nutrient-dense ingredients, which helps residents who’ve lost interest in full meals.
One of the resident lounges, set up with a game table, armchairs and a TV on a rolling stand for group programs.
The Apartments: Floor Plans, Sizes and Features
Ivy Park at San Tomas offers studios and semi-private companion suites. The suites come with a kitchenette, large windows, individually controlled heating and air conditioning, an emergency call system and an accessible bathroom. Here are the floor plans the community publishes.
| Floor plan | Care level | Layout | Starting size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olive | Assisted Living and Memory Care | Semi-private suite | 300 sq. ft. |
| Freesia | Assisted Living | Private studio | 355 sq. ft. |
| Aster | Memory Care | Private studio | 361 sq. ft. |
| Juniper | Memory Care | Companion studio | 363 sq. ft. |
Those square footages will sound small to anyone who’s lived in a 1,600 square foot ranch home for forty years, and I won’t pretend otherwise. But a studio here isn’t meant to hold the whole house. The dining room, lounges, salon, gardens and activity spaces become the living room, and the apartment becomes a bedroom and a quiet place to retreat. Deciding what comes along is one of the hardest parts of the move, and I wrote a whole guide on getting rid of a lifetime of stuff because of it, plus a follow-up on what to do with the things nobody wants.
A furnished model studio. Residents bring their own furniture, and the room easily holds a queen bed, nightstand and storage bench.
The kitchenettes have quartz counters, a full-size refrigerator and a microwave, which is enough for coffee, snacks and leftovers without creating a cooking hazard. That’s a good balance for someone who still likes a little independence but shouldn’t be left alone with a gas range.
The apartment kitchenette, with a full-size refrigerator, quartz counter and plenty of cabinet space.
The ground-floor suites I saw looked straight out at the landscaped gardens, and each room had its own wall-mounted heating and cooling unit. Individual climate control sounds like a small detail until you remember how differently a 90-year-old and a 55-year-old feel the same room temperature.
A ground-floor studio with a garden view and its own heating and cooling unit.
As a CAPS-certified agent, the bathroom is where I always look hardest, because it’s where most falls at home happen. The shower here has a very low threshold, a handheld shower head on a slide bar, a fold-down seat and grab bars on two walls, with another bar beside the toilet. Compare that to the tub and sliding glass door in the typical Silicon Valley ranch home, and you can see why families often feel relief once a parent moves in. Retrofitting that same safety into a house isn’t cheap, as I show in my breakdown of what aging in place modifications really cost.
The walk-in shower has a low threshold, a handheld shower on a slide bar, a shower seat and multiple grab bars.
Free Guide for Families
Selling Mom or Dad's Home to Pay for Care?
Bay Area assisted living runs $7,800 to $8,300 a month, and the house is usually the only asset big enough to cover it. This guide walks you through timing the sale, who has legal authority to sign, the capital gains rules for seniors in care, and how a sale affects Medi-Cal and VA benefits, so the decision gets made from strength instead of in a crisis.
Read the Family Guide →Dining, Activities and Everyday Life
Dining at Ivy Park is all-day and restaurant-style, with seasonal menus, live cooking stations, a bistro and a private dining room for family celebrations. Meals can be served in the dining room or delivered to the apartment, and the community lists accommodations for diabetic, low-sodium, vegetarian, kosher, renal and pureed diets. The day I visited, the bistro counter was decked out in blue-and-white Bavarian bunting for an Oktoberfest spread, which tells you something about the kind of effort the staff puts into the calendar.
The bistro and show kitchen, dressed up for Oktoberfest on the day I visited.
The activity calendar covers group fitness, yoga and tai chi, art workshops, music, movie nights, a weekly happy hour, gardening, faith services and weekly outings, and scheduled transportation handles appointments and errands. There’s also a full-service salon, a fitness center and an art studio. The community says staff speak English, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese, which matters a great deal in a city as diverse as San Jose, and it’s pet friendly for both dogs and cats.
Outside, a curving concrete path runs between the building and a row of mature hedges and flowering roses. It’s flat, wide and easy to walk with a cane or a walker, and it gives residents a safe loop to get fresh air without leaving the property.
The garden walking path along the side of the building, lined with roses and trimmed hedges.
What Ivy Park at San Tomas Costs in 2026
Ivy Park’s website lists its floor plans “from $5,995” a month. The starting rents the community has published through A Place for Mom give a fuller picture, and they’re shown below. Treat these as starting points, because the final number depends on the apartment, current availability and the level of care your parent needs after their assessment.
| Care type | Semi-private suite | Private studio |
|---|---|---|
| Assisted Living | from about $5,995/mo | from about $7,595/mo |
| Memory Care | from about $6,995/mo | from about $8,600/mo |
Caring.com also lists a one-time entry fee of $9,000, and care services are typically priced on top of rent once the community’s nurse completes an assessment. For context, CareScout’s 2024 Cost of Care Survey put the national median for assisted living at $5,900 a month, and CareScout data cited by Caring.com puts the San Jose median at about $8,750. So Ivy Park’s semi-private suites price below the local median, and its private studios land right around it.
Rent typically includes meals, housekeeping, laundry, utilities, cable, Wi-Fi, scheduled transportation and the activity program. Medicare doesn’t pay for assisted living, and the community doesn’t accept Medi-Cal for these units, so most families pay with a combination of income, savings, long-term care insurance and, very often, the house. Some families ask about borrowing against the home instead, and I explain why a reverse mortgage vs. selling usually tips toward selling once a parent has moved out.
That last piece is where I come in. For most of the families I work with, the family home is the largest asset by far (my San Jose home prices page shows what that equity looks like right now), and selling it is what makes a move like this sustainable for years instead of months. The tricky part is timing, because you usually need to pay the first months of rent before the house has sold. I walk through the bridge options, from family loans to bridge financing to Compass Concierge, in my guide to paying for assisted living while the house sells. If that house is in San Jose, my page for San Jose seniors selling a longtime home covers the tax rules, timing and neighborhoods that shape the plan.
Free Guide for Families
Selling Mom or Dad's Home to Pay for Care?
Bay Area assisted living runs $7,800 to $8,300 a month, and the house is usually the only asset big enough to cover it. This guide walks you through timing the sale, who has legal authority to sign, the capital gains rules for seniors in care, and how a sale affects Medi-Cal and VA benefits, so the decision gets made from strength instead of in a crisis.
Read the Family Guide →What Families Are Saying
Online reviews for a community this new are thin, so I read them for patterns rather than star counts. On A Place for Mom, Ivy Park at San Tomas carries a review score of 8.3 out of 10 from ten recent reviews. Families rate cleanliness highest (4.5 out of 5) and friendliness next (4.1), while activities score lowest (3.2). Reviews on Caring.com and Seniorly are positive and frequently mention the food, the bright layout and individual caregivers by name.
The critical reviews follow a consistent theme: staffing gaps and leadership turnover during the 2025 ownership transition, questions about whether medications are passed by nurses or by medication technicians, and slow communication in the first weeks after a move-in. None of those are unusual in assisted living, but they’re the exact topics I’d raise on a tour, and the community’s executive director has responded publicly to several of those reviews.
How I’d Tour Ivy Park at San Tomas
Glossy common areas are easy to stage. Here’s how I’d get past the model apartment and see how the community really runs. For the move itself, keep my checklist for moving a parent into assisted living handy.
- Look up the license first. Search license number 435202874 on the California Department of Social Services Care Facility Search to read inspection visits and any citations before you go.
- Visit twice, once on a weekday morning and once around 4 p.m. or on a weekend. Late afternoon is when staffing is thinnest and when residents with dementia often have the hardest time.
- Stay for a meal. Food is the number one quality-of-life complaint in senior living, and a lunch in the dining room tells you more than any brochure.
- Ask about staffing ratios on each shift, how many hours a licensed nurse is on site, and who administers medications at night.
- Ask how care levels are assessed, how often they’re reassessed, and what the last two annual rent increases were.
- Ask when a resident would need to move from assisted living to Evergreen, and when someone would need more care than the community can provide.
- Ask how long the executive director and the memory care director have been in their roles.
If you’re the adult child who’s starting to worry, and you’re not sure whether it’s time for this conversation at all, my short Is It Time to Talk to Mom and Dad? quiz below can help you sort that out before you schedule tours.
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Sources and Further Reading
- Ivy Park at San Tomas official website, including its assisted living, memory care, floor plan and about pages
- A Place for Mom community listing, published starting rents and family reviews
- Caring.com community listing, license number and entry fee
- CareScout Cost of Care Survey (2024)
- Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures
- Lokon and Kinney, “It makes me feel like myself”, Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University
- California Department of Social Services Care Facility Search
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Ivy Park at San Tomas located?
Ivy Park at San Tomas is at 3930 Williams Road, San Jose, CA 95117, in West San Jose near San Tomas Expressway and Saratoga Avenue. It’s a short drive from Campbell, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Cupertino and Willow Glen. The community’s phone number is 669-221-8993.
What levels of care does Ivy Park at San Tomas offer?
It offers assisted living and memory care. Memory care is provided in a secure neighborhood called Evergreen for residents living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. The community is licensed as a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE #435202874) and is not a skilled nursing facility.
How much does Ivy Park at San Tomas cost?
Published starting rents run from about $5,995 a month for a semi-private assisted living suite to about $8,600 a month for a private memory care studio. Care fees are added based on an assessment, and Caring.com lists a one-time entry fee of $9,000. Call the community for current availability and pricing.
Is Ivy Park at San Tomas the same as MorningStar Memory Care at San Tomas?
Yes, it’s the same building. It opened in 2023 as MorningStar Memory Care at San Tomas, and Oakmont Management Group later took over operations and renamed it Ivy Park at San Tomas under its Ivy Living brand. Some older online listings still use the MorningStar name.
Does Ivy Park at San Tomas accept Medi-Cal or Medicare?
Medicare doesn’t cover assisted living rent or personal care anywhere, and third-party listings indicate the community doesn’t accept Medi-Cal for these units. Most residents pay privately using income, savings, long-term care insurance or proceeds from selling a home.
Are pets allowed at Ivy Park at San Tomas?
Yes. The community describes itself as pet friendly, and third-party listings note that both dogs and cats are allowed. Ask about size limits, deposits and who cares for the pet if a resident’s needs change.
How do I check inspection reports for Ivy Park at San Tomas?
Search license number 435202874 on the California Department of Social Services Care Facility Search website. It lists inspection visits, complaints and any citations, and it’s a good habit for every community you’re considering.
If your family is weighing a move to Ivy Park at San Tomas and wondering how the house fits into the plan, I’m happy to talk it through with no pressure. You can reach me at 408-413-3087 or book a time on my calendar, and we’ll figure out the timing, the numbers and the next step together.
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