Paradise Villa Assisted Living and Memory Care
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Paradise Villa Assisted Living and Memory Care is a 39-bed assisted living and memory care community at 2177 17th Avenue in Santa Cruz, California, Santa Cruz County. The corporate licensee is Paradise Assisted Care Corp, and the home operates under the Paradise Villa brand.
The community sits in a residential neighborhood a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean, with retail, dining, and pharmacy access nearby. Paradise Villa describes itself as a unique medium-sized community designed to feel like a home rather than an institution.
The CDSS license is held by Paradise Assisted Care Corp, with Christina Rivas as administrator. The license number is 445202851, issued March 30, 2022.
Facility Snapshot
| Detail | Value |
| Address | 2177 17th Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062 |
| County | Santa Cruz |
| Licensed Capacity | 39 residents |
| License Number | 445202851 (CDSS) |
| License Date | March 30, 2022 |
| Licensee | Paradise Assisted Care Corp |
| Administrator | Christina Rivas |
| Brand Name | Paradise Villa Assisted Living and Memory Care |
| Facility Type | Residential Care for the Elderly (RCFE) |
| Care Types | Assisted Living, Memory Care, Hospice On-Site |
| Spanish-Speaking Care | Available |
| Smoking / Pet Policy | Non-smoking, non-pet facility |
| Phone | (831) 475-1386 |
| Website | paradisevillaassistedliving.com |
What Type of Facility Is Paradise Villa?
Paradise Villa is a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE) with both general assisted living and dedicated memory care for residents with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The home accepts residents with a range of needs – from independent seniors who want minimal support to those requiring substantial assistance with activities of daily living.
The home is described as a medium-sized community, and at 39 beds it sits between the small board and care category (six beds) and larger institutional campuses (often 100+). This size allows for proper kitchen and dining setup, structured activities programming, and dedicated memory care spaces, while keeping the staff-to-resident ratio close enough that caregivers know each resident well.
How Long Has Paradise Villa Been Operating?
The current CDSS license under Paradise Assisted Care Corp was issued in March 2022, but the property itself has operated as a senior care community for far longer. Paradise Villa describes itself as having curated a thriving community for over 40 years – meaning the building, staff structures, and resident community predate the current licensing entity by decades. The 2022 license likely reflects an ownership transition, with the underlying community continuing operation.
For families weighing the home, this combination matters: the physical operation has decades of community presence in Santa Cruz, while the formal corporate structure is newer.
What Are the Four Levels of Care?
Paradise Villa structures care into four distinct levels, plus a separate memory care track. The level a resident enters at depends on the LIC 602 evaluation and the home's own assessment.
Level 1 Care
For residents who are mostly independent and require only minimal assistance with daily living activities. Level 1 residents may need some help with dressing, bathing, or light supervision but otherwise manage their own routines.
Level 2 Care
For residents who use walkers or wheelchairs and are considered non-ambulatory by state licensing. Level 2 residents need moderate assistance with personal care, including dressing, bathing, special diets, and incontinence care.
Level 3 Care
For residents who need heavier assistance with daily living activities, including walking to and from meals. Level 3 residents may need help with incontinence, dressing, special diets, and special observation for ongoing health issues.
Level 4 Care
For residents who require the highest level of assistance available within the assisted living license, with intensive support across most or all activities of daily living.
Memory Care
A separate care track for residents with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia, including different stages of cognitive decline. Memory care includes meals, medication monitoring, laundry, and 24-hour supervision regardless of the resident's underlying mobility level.
What Services Does the Home Provide?
Daily Care and Supervision
24-hour care and supervision
Three home-cooked meals daily, served in neighborhood dining rooms
Menus designed by a dietitian, prepared by experienced cooks
Housekeeping and laundry services
Personal care attendants for bathing, grooming, and dressing
Physician-ordered medications monitored and secured
Activities and Social Engagement
Live music performances by visiting musicians and dancers
Arts and crafts
Gentle exercise and outdoor walks
"Popcorn & Movie Day" on the big screen television
Current events discussions
Social gatherings and family event hosting
Birthday and anniversary celebrations
Holiday celebrations
Room Options
Each guest can choose between a shared (semi-private) and a private room. The home reports having multiple dining and living areas designed for easy access for all residents.
Spanish-Speaking Care
Care can be provided for Spanish-speaking residents – an important offering for families in the Santa Cruz area where Spanish is widely spoken.
How Is On-Site Medical Care Arranged for Residents?
Routine Physician Visits at the Home
Doctor2me physicians visit residents directly at the home for routine checkups, chronic condition follow-ups, and urgent issues that don't warrant an ER trip. Same-day or scheduled visits cover primary care work, alongside the LIC 602 evaluations admission requires.
For residents in higher care levels (Level 3 and 4) and memory care residents specifically, in-home physician visits remove the strain of clinic transportation – particularly valuable when a resident has limited mobility or experiences disorientation in unfamiliar settings.
Families can pick a specific physician from the Doctor2me provider directory when continuity with a known doctor matters.
Specialty Wound Care
Pressure injuries, diabetic ulcers, and slow-healing post-surgical wounds are common in older adults, especially those in Level 3 and 4 care or recovering from a hospital stay. Standard wound care at an RCFE is sometimes not enough for chronic wounds that have not closed within the expected timeframe.
GotWound.Com is a mobile wound care service that sends physicians directly to patients in homes and care facilities. The team uses amniotic membrane grafts – tissue from the inner layer of donated placenta, covered by Medicare Part B – with the goal of closing complex wounds in under six weeks. Coverage extends across all 50 states, including all of California. For residents at Paradise Villa with non-healing wounds, having a specialty wound care team come on-site removes one of the more disruptive trips a frail resident can face.
What Happens When Care Needs Progress to End-of-Life?
Paradise Villa offers hospice services on-site for residents whose conditions progress to terminal stages. This means the resident can remain in familiar surroundings during a difficult time, rather than transferring to an inpatient hospice facility. The home's regular caregivers continue providing day-to-day support while the hospice team handles pain management, medication adjustments, IV therapy, oxygen support, and family communication.
LIEM Hospice offers telehealth consultations for hospice care alongside its in-person services, which makes it possible for families and care teams to coordinate without scheduling another visitor into a routine that already feels stretched. For families coordinating across distances, telehealth visits are particularly useful for treatment planning meetings and questions about symptom progression that don't require an in-person clinical exam.
What About Property and Estate Logistics?
A move into assisted living rarely happens in isolation. Most placements run alongside decisions about the parent's existing home – clearing it out, deciding whether to sell, transferring property between family members, or coordinating with siblings on long-term housing arrangements. These threads tend to surface later than they should, often after the move-in date is set, and they pull family attention away from the resident at exactly the wrong time.
Specialists such as Senior Home Transitional Services work with families on the property and estate side of the move – the logistics that sit alongside the care choice but rarely line up neatly with the care timeline. Working with someone on this track lets the family stay focused on the care decision and the resident, rather than juggling two complex transitions in parallel.
Where Is Paradise Villa?
Paradise Villa is on 17th Avenue in eastern Santa Cruz, a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean. The neighborhood is residential and walkable, with retail, pharmacy, and grocery access within a short distance. Dientes Community Dental Care is roughly 0.4 miles from the home.
There are nine hospitals within 25 miles of Paradise Villa. Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz is the closest acute-care option, roughly four miles from the home. Watsonville Community Hospital sits about 14 miles south, and Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare in Pleasanton is approximately 47 miles north for specialty care.
The CDSS Community Care Licensing Division handles regional inspections of RCFEs through its Bay Area Regional Office under Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations.
Families based in Santa Cruz, Capitola, Soquel, Aptos, Live Oak, Scotts Valley, or Watsonville find the home within easy visiting distance.
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Address: 2177 17th Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, Santa Cruz County