Ararat Home of Los Angeles
Ararat Home of Los Angeles is a licensed nonprofit assisted living and skilled nursing community in Mission Hills, California, with room for up to 186 residents. Operated by Ararat Home of Los Angeles, Inc., it is one of the largest and most established communities of its kind in the San Fernando Valley. What truly sets it apart is its heritage: founded in 1949, Ararat Home was created to care for elderly members of the Armenian community and to preserve Armenian culture, and that mission still shapes daily life on its campus today. This overview looks at the community's history and culture, the levels of care it offers, everyday life, licensing, and the Mission Hills setting.
An Armenian-Heritage Community With Deep Roots
A Nonprofit Founded in 1949
Ararat Home traces its beginnings to 1949, when a group of Armenian-Americans set out to create a place to care for elderly members of their community in Los Angeles. From humble early days in the city's West Adams district, the organization grew over the decades and, in 1992, opened its Mission Hills campus on land it had acquired years earlier. As a non-profit, non-denominational organization, Ararat Home has always been driven by mission rather than margins, and that long history gives families a sense of stability that newer operators cannot match.
Culture, Language, and Community
For many families, the heart of Ararat Home is its cultural connection. The community serves primarily the Armenian community and works to promote Armenian culture and heritage, which can mean familiar language, food, music, and traditions for residents who spent their lives immersed in them. The Mission Hills campus has grown into more than a care home, with a museum, a community center, and a chapel among its features. For an older adult, being surrounded by a familiar culture and language can ease the sense of dislocation that a move sometimes brings, turning a new residence into something closer to a continuation of home.
A Campus for Different Levels of Care
Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Together
Ararat Home offers more than one level of care on its campus, including assisted living and skilled nursing, with room for up to 186 residents across the community. Having different levels of support in one place can matter a great deal for a resident whose needs change over time, since it may allow them to remain in a familiar setting and among familiar faces as their care requirements grow. For families, that continuity can spare the strain and disruption of moving a loved one somewhere new later on.
The Mission Hills Setting
The community sits on Mission Hills Road in the northern San Fernando Valley, on a sizable campus that gives residents room for gardens and shared outdoor spaces. The setting is residential and calm while still being firmly within the Los Angeles area, which keeps residents close to family across the Valley and greater Los Angeles. That combination of space, quiet, and accessibility is part of what has made the campus a longtime fixture in the community.
Everyday Life and Care
Help With Daily Living
Day to day, the community provides personal care and supervision, with staff on hand to help with tasks such as bathing, dressing, grooming, and moving about safely, along with medication support. In a larger community like this, that everyday help is paired with the resources and staffing that come with scale, including dedicated common areas and a full schedule of activities. The aim of assisted living here, as anywhere, is to provide as much help as a person needs while letting them keep doing what they can.
Medical Care and Health Visits
Close coordination with a resident's medical team is central to good senior care, especially where skilled nursing is involved. For added support at home, some families arrange skilled in-home services such as 911 AM PM Home Health care, which provides home nursing along with physical, occupational, and speech therapy.
Getting to routine appointments can also be tiring for an older adult, so families sometimes prefer to arrange a physician who can see residents on-site for checkups and follow-ups, keeping care close and reducing the stress of travel.
Meals, Activities, and Connection
Shared meals and a steady rhythm of activities give the day structure and give residents a natural reason to gather. In a community rooted in Armenian heritage, culturally familiar food, traditions, and gatherings can make those daily moments feel especially meaningful. For someone who has grown isolated at home, that sense of connection and belonging is often one of the biggest changes for the better.
A few key facts about the community:
Type: Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE), assisted living with skilled nursing on campus
License #: 191222081 (licensed capacity 186)
Status: Licensed
Address: 15105 Mission Hills Road, Mission Hills, CA 91345 (Los Angeles County)
Licensed since: June 26, 1992
Operated by: Ararat Home of Los Angeles, Inc. (non-profit)
Website: ararathome.org
Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing: Know the Difference
Families weighing a community like this one often want to understand how assisted living differs from skilled nursing. Assisted living is for older adults who need help with some daily tasks but are largely able to direct their own day. Skilled nursing provides a higher level of medical care, with licensed nurses on hand for residents who need ongoing clinical support or rehabilitation.
Because Ararat Home offers both on one campus, it can be a fit for families who want the reassurance that a loved one can move to a higher level of care without leaving a familiar place. A care assessment is the usual way to determine the right starting level, and it is worth asking how transitions between levels are handled.
Questions to Ask When You Tour
A visit tells you far more than any listing can. Walking the campus, meeting staff, and picturing your loved one's day there is the surest way to judge fit. A short list of questions helps you compare communities on what matters most:
What levels of care are offered, and how are transitions between them handled?
How many caregivers and nurses are on duty during the day and overnight?
How are medications stored, tracked, and given?
What does a typical day and weekly activity calendar look like?
How are cultural traditions, language, and meals reflected in daily life?
How does the community keep families informed when something changes?
Life in Mission Hills and the San Fernando Valley
Location adds to a community's appeal. Mission Hills sits in the northern San Fernando Valley, with easy access to the 405 and 118 freeways and quick drives to neighboring communities such as Granada Hills, San Fernando, and Sylmar. The area keeps residents close to family across the Valley and greater Los Angeles, as well as to hospitals and medical care nearby, including Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. For relatives who visit often, or who may need to reach a hospital quickly, an easy-to-reach location matters as much as anything on the campus.
State Licensing and Oversight
Ararat Home of Los Angeles is licensed and overseen by California's Community Care Licensing Division, which conducts unannounced inspections, investigates complaints, and publishes the results. Families who want to review the community's full public record, including its current standing and any inspection or complaint history, can look it up through the state's official care facility search. Reading that record directly is one of the most reliable ways to understand any care community before choosing it.
Taking the Next Step
Choosing a care community is rarely a quick decision, and it helps to see a place in person, meet the staff, and picture your loved one's day there. You can learn more about the community and its history on its own website, and if you are comparing several options, a senior placement service that helps families weigh care homes can walk you through the choices. Taking the time to visit, ask questions, and review the state record is the surest path to a decision your family feels good about.
Explore More Assisted Living Communities in Thousand Oaks
