Stellar Senior Living

They have really gone downhill in the last year! New administration, not enough caregivers and the food is not consistent. They do not have a chef, even though they say they do! Don't place anybody at La Sonora, recommend a different facility! I would say to the families, looking for assisted-living, to speak to the residents and see what they say about the place they are considering. I would also ask how long the nurse and director have been at the facility. There is so much turnover at La Sonora.

My parent is in memory Care here and the support is absolutely abysmal. Their is no real caregiving support, there is so much turnover and the staff they have does not seem qualified. There are no activities, they don't seem to know my parents name or anything about them. We try to call and no one ever answers or calls back. We pay over $[fee removed] a month and do not get even close to our money's worth. It's no wonder people are moving their parents out of the place on a regular basis. I wish we had this alternative, we would leave in a heartbeat.

There was significant issues with medications, trash removal, cleaning of the room, and laundry. They are working to fix these things but they will have to regain my trust. They need more fun activities for the residents. The food definitely needs help all meals.

They are understaffed & overwhelmed. On top of that, they went thru a management change [date removed] & are struggling with issues related to that. I would not recommend Orchard Park at Southfork at this time.

I couldn't refer anyone to them. The staff that worked with my mom were nice enough, but they weren't trained well enough to handle situations that would come up. Med techs would continually run out of meds for my mom and not order a new supply. Doses would be skipped and we would not be notified. My mom was left sitting on the toilet many times for 30-45 minutes. Had several falls and waited long periods of time before getting help. She didn't get showered when she was supposed to, her apartment was not cleaned when it was scheduled. We had billing issues a lot, and the management team was less than capable at solving problems. They are not best of state, and the management company was not stellar.

The building is in one of the worst areas of Albuquerque. The homeless issue is horrible. I feel so unsafe when I visit my mom. The food has been a lot better recently but the amount of times I’ve heard staff complaining is ridiculous. For an independent living there are a lot of residents who do not seem independent either. Pretty disappointed with this community.

The residents for the most part are wonderful and kind. I made a number of friends while I was living there. Thunderbird has been under new management since Dec 2023, they are Stellar Living. They are making many changes (too numerous to count). I'm confident it will be a better run facility at some point. I'm glad for these changes for the sake of the residents, they deserved better than what was before Stellar took over. My biggest complaint was the food and food service. It was terrible so I moved to another place. Stellar, is however, completely updating the kitchen and they are installing AC. So Bravo for all they are doing!

In April of [removed] I moved my mother into South Gate Senior Living, (it was under Stellar Senior Living as its parent corporation) For almost 4 years they took excellent care of my mother and the facility won multiple awards for how well the clients were treated. This year apparently Stellar sold to Pinnacle and Pinnacle decided in all their wisdom to replace the top three directors and bring in their own people. This was very foolish on their part My mother recently passed away and the only communication that SGSL has done with me is to try and convince me to sign a new contract with them (this was before my mom passed). When I told them I wasn't going to sign and most likely would move my mom as they had done nothing to impress me and gain my trust at that point they did not respond at all. when my mother passed shortly after I received no communication from them. Not a condolence call, not a card, nothing. The new executive director is never there, and won't return calls.

Mom was there for a year, and initially things seemed good, but soon became apparent that the promises for changing sheets, help with dentures, hearing aids, showers, and giving doctor ordered supplements happened sporadically or not at all. These services are extra charges, and I was the one doing them much of the time. Management does not hold employees accountable. Med techs would lie about giving Mom supplements. She would go a week or more without a shower, until I would come and take care of it. Many discussions with the Directors resulted in temporary changes at best. Care staff turnover is constant and most are not trained how to use different approaches or understand dementia. A few staff were great and interacted positively with the residents - front desk, activities director, chef, physical therapy staff, and a couple of care givers that Mom loved. After a year of increasing stress, we moved mom to a different facility, and it was the best decision we could have made.

Park Lane is a beautiful building. But it is old building. There are problems with the plumbing and leakage. My apartment has many issues and needs repairs. When I request maintenance, it seldom gets addressed or followed up on. I can't even get a simple thing like a defective light fixture repaired. They don't have a system where you can check and see if a work order is being taken care of. I never know where my place is in the queue. I constantly have to go to the manager to find out what's going on and he really doesn't know. The maintenance man is always out of sight. People at the front desk are clueless as to what to do to address these issues. I like the location and the people but I may have to move because I feel like I'm being ignored. Also the quality and quantity of food has gone way down. This is probably due to inflation.

The communication with the administration is not the best - they really need to have better response times when the resident's needs assistance or the families call. Even the outside care workers can see the problems that are going on. The meals and dining service is good and as our loved one is still settling in they are starting to slowly enjoy the activities.

I used to love it here so much. This place got new management in the summer of 2021. Since then it has gone downhill. We have very little maintenance, and sometimes we don't even have hot water. But the worst thing is that when I report problems to the manager, the problem is seldom taken care of and the manager acts like he could not care less. The lawn beside my window is overgrown and looks like a weed patch. I was assured they would take care of it , but it was never taken care of. I was very happy here until the New Management took over. Many long time residents have moved out because they also have not been happy with the management. They have have refused to address our questions and problems. Food has gotten worse as well and we have lost a lot of staff. I would move but I don't really have any place to go at this time. Also management is not very accessible to residents here.

At that time, a lot of tours were virtual, including our tour at Lakewood Reserve. At the same time, another place we ended up choosing allowed in-person tours. Even through a virtual tour, I could see that Lakewod Reserve was an older facility and not as nice. The people leading the tour seemed like typical salespeople, nice, but the language they used made you keenly aware they’re trying to sell you something.

Not enough activities.

The only thing I like about living here is 2 excellent caregivers. The management team are useless. They don't return calls or give the correct prescriptions. Don't move here. You will regret it.

My mother moved in October of 2019. We were THRILLED with the service, the food was decent, the staff is and has remained wonderful. HOWEVER, then we had the devastating tornadoes. My sister and I asked, specifically, during the interview, if they had generators for emergencies . They lied to us because the home remained without power, with residents told to remain in their rooms, for four days after them. Not to mention the fact that they have ZERO plan for tornado warnings. My mother's apartment is NOT located in a safe area if a tornado were to hit that building directly. This is not acceptable. We remain unhappy with this, but pray it simply does not occur with any frequency. Now, they have come up with a rule which effects my mother directly, routinely, every single day. There is now an extra $3 charge per meal if she wants to take her food to go and eat in her apartment. This is for breakfast, which at the time of our interview was HIGHLIGHTED as a meal she was WELCOME to come down and get in the morning and bring back to her apartment. This is also for food from the makeshift cafe downstairs-which is hardly an optimal space to dine in- AND for any other meal from the dining room. This company feels the need to collect THREE MORE DOLLARS-per meal- from seniors on fixed incomes for to-go boxes- boxes that cost patrons of regular restaurants anywhere from .50-.75 MAX , that is IF they charge extra for to-go boxes at all. SUDDENLY, the owners of this establishment, who own over a 100 other senior care facilities across the country, feel like they need to mark up the cost of a to-go box because they aren't making enough money otherwise. I'm sorry, but what other reason could there POSSIBLY BE to make the cost of a meal $3 more because a resident wants to eat in the privacy of their own apartment on occasion, or even all the time. WHY??? Lastly, I have great concern for the population over the spread of COVID-19 virus through the vulnerable population living there. Washington state's governor JUST ordered new regulations that homes need to meet in their state. This company owns properties in that state. My question is whether they will VOLUNTARILY begin to take measure here in the D/FW area to prevent the spread of the disease BEFORE there is a problem here? Or, like with the tornadoes, are they going to wait for "the lights to go out" before they ACT??? By then, as we are seeing already, I fear it will be WAY too late. My mother enjoys living there. She has made friends and has ZERO intentions of moving. They have found a way to prey and feed off a population who desires little change in their lives, so, no matter what the company may do to make life more difficult, like raising prices disproportionately, or NOT do, to maybe make it safer, like providing emergency plans or equipment in a timely fashion, few probably want to go to the trouble of moving regardless. They must COUNT ON THAT. The place is relatively clean and the staff, overall, are pleasant and good. At the end of the day, I suppose that has to be of more importance. But REALLY???? $3 for a to-go box??? I guess their EXTENSIVE board of directors needs a raise? Something tells me the staff that helps my mother won't see a dime of what probably adds up when they own over a hundred properties. Now, I can't know for sure whether they have implemented this policy across all their properties, however, I do know they will be serving the same meals everyday across their 100+ properties so they are able to purchase more institutional type food at a cheaper price, so it is a fair assumptions. BTW, THAT policy has immediately changed the quality of the food as well. One of the things my mother enjoyed most was the FRESH food she was served at first. Now, in a matter of a few months, that has all changed as well. It would be nice if this corporation could behave differently because its commodity is HUMAN BEINGS and not widgets, but oh well. Anyone thinking of moving in should know ALL the facts, and also know that they can change at ANY TIME.

Recently bought out. New owners have cut way back. Requests to fix are dragging way out. The food has gone from good to edible. Our social hours have gone drastically downhill. They are now offering residents very nice incentives to bring in new people. That speaks volumes! We've had a mass exodus due to rent increases and unhappy residents.

I notice there is not a place to rate food and this is one place Atria fails. I have lived here for 4 years. and in appearance it is old but seviceable. But the food has gone down drastically. The meals are portioned for assisted living and not active adults. The desert is laughable. Pie is cut in 12-16 pieces, slices are between 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide at the crust. More than half the food is purcased made up and frozen, not cooked from scratch. the menu is directly from Atria and ias repeated over and over again. Even though we have asked for mor vegtables, we are serve only one ore two portions. When Atria took over they fired a great many people and replaced them with their own people who are distant and non cooperative. Activities are ok, but the few hours the drivers work make it almost impossible to plan trips. I really don't want to move, but it seems that every day some ammmenity disappears. The only thing gone up is rent. Even though cost of living has not gone up a lot, most rent rates have gone up 6 !/2 per cent. My advise is ask a lot of questions and look closely.

this is a nice facility, but they have continued to raise the rent by over $100/month for seniors who are on a fixed income. In the 6 years that my mother has lived there the rent as increased 45%. Nothing as changed in how they run there place except they get a new manger about every 6 months.

I toured The Springs, and thought that it was an ok community. I thought that the staff and management put on a good show for the public view during the tour, but once we got to where the residents were, I felt the area was sub par.