Overall sentiment across the reviews for Ventura Place - Sky Active Living is deeply mixed, with a substantial number of highly positive accounts centered on staff, community, activities, and food, while a significant subset of reviews raise serious operational, safety, and management concerns. Many residents and family members praise the facility for its friendly, compassionate staff, lively social environment, and regular activities. Numerous reviewers describe a family-like atmosphere where residents make friends, participate in musical and social programs, and enjoy on-site amenities such as a courtyard, library, beauty salon, exercise area, and escorted outings. For many, meals are a highlight — reviewers frequently call the food delicious, and dining is described as a pleasant communal experience. Those long-term residents who remain satisfied often cite responsive maintenance staff, helpful directors or managers (several reviewers name specific staff like Andrea, Larry, and Steve), and an overall high quality of life in the independent living community.
However, a consistent and serious thread through the reviews involves operational failures and safety risks. Multiple reviewers report pest infestations (including large roach problems and bed bugs), structural and maintenance issues (potholes, cracks with rust, water damage and falling ceiling incidents), and aging kitchen equipment that allegedly failed to maintain proper food temperatures. Several reviews explicitly link these problems to potential food safety risks and express fear of foodborne illness. These problems are compounded by inconsistent housekeeping and broken promises around services (weekly cleaning, trash pickup, maid service) — some residents praise weekly housekeeping as excellent, while others say it was infrequent or entirely absent.
Staffing and management receive sharply divided feedback. Many reviewers highlight kind, attentive, and compassionate front-line staff who go above and beyond; numerous accounts single out excellent nurses, servers, and maintenance personnel. At the same time, there are repeated reports of high staff turnover, inconsistent communication, after-hours/front-desk coverage gaps, and insufficient overnight staffing. Reviews chronicle frequent management changes: some praise a new executive director for positive change, while others characterize management as rude, unresponsive, or unreliable. Several reviewers allege serious misconduct — including coercive requests for money or co-signing, financial exploitation of vulnerable residents by dining hall staff, theft of personal property, and claims that management covered up or failed to properly address these incidents. These allegations raise substantial red flags about resident safety, financial protection, and accountability.
Dining and food service are another area of mixed experience. Many residents enjoy the meals, variety, and dining atmosphere, with regular praise for the kitchen and servers. Conversely, multiple reviews report declining food quality after staffing or chef changes, slow meal service, missed or late meal deliveries (which for some residents had medical consequences), repetitive menus, small portions, and alleged food-safety lapses. The combination of aging kitchen equipment, delayed service, and pest reports amplifies concern among the negative reviewers.
Facilities and amenities are often praised (clean communal areas, beautiful grounds, cottages, and engaged activity programming) but also criticized for pockets of decline and unmet maintenance needs. Complaints include long hallways with a single elevator, limited transportation schedules, inadequate parking infrastructure (potholes, no striping), absence of handicap ramps in some areas, problems with internet signal coverage, and inconvenient trash disposal logistics. Some reviews reflect a discrepancy between well-maintained public areas and issues within apartments or service areas — e.g., remodeled apartments and prompt maintenance for some residents versus reports of apartments not cleaned for weeks or items lost during move-out for others.
Financial and billing concerns appear repeatedly: reviewers mentioned slow or opaque final billing, unresolved rent refund disputes, perceived or actual rate increases, and removal of previously included benefits (such as internet or maid service in some unit types). Several reviews state residents perceive the community as becoming more expensive without commensurate improvements in service, prompting questions about value for money.
Patterns in the reviews suggest variability in resident experience driven by timing, specific staff on duty, unit type, and whether residents require more care. Ventura Place appears to operate primarily as an independent living community with some on-site home health presence, but multiple reviewers noted it is not an assisted-living provider — making it difficult for residents who need higher levels of care to age in place there. This mismatch has led to negative outcomes for some families when residents’ needs progressed beyond the scope of services offered.
In conclusion, Ventura Place elicits strong loyalty and praise from many residents and family members who experience compassionate staff, an active social calendar, attractive amenities, and generally good food. At the same time, a substantial number of reviews document severe and recurring issues — pest infestations, maintenance and safety failures, allegations of theft and financial exploitation, management unresponsiveness, inconsistent housekeeping, and operational shortcomings in dining and billing. Prospective residents and families should weigh the frequently reported strengths (community, staff kindness, activities, and food) against the notable risks flagged in the reviews. If considering Ventura Place, visitors should: speak directly with multiple current residents about their experiences; ask detailed questions about pest control, security measures, staffing patterns (including overnight coverage), incident and theft policies, billing procedures, and how management documents and resolves complaints; confirm what services are included in specific unit types; and verify written promises (housekeeping frequency, internet, trash pickup, move-in services) before committing. These steps can help clarify whether Ventura Place’s strong social environment and supportive staff align with an individual’s safety, care, and value expectations given the mixed reports.
