Golden West was very nice. They didn't have three meals a day, but they had a grill that you could pay to eat any meal. The rooms were smaller and darker. They didn't have as many activities either. Plus, there were more limits when you move in there. You had to be low-income to get in, and you had to prove your income. I wasn't that impressed with it.

Golden West has a joint building for independent living and assisted living. We have the virus and we've been quarantined a lot and all activities have ceased. People are staying in their rooms, and if you have visitors it has to be outside and it has to be planned ahead. Everybody's wearing masks. They have also started remodeling a few months ago, so there's construction work. It's just not enjoyable, but it's work that they have to do. We enjoyed the activities before all of this virus happened. It was more of community experience and we met a lot of pleasant and nice people when I first came, but there's been a lot of turnover with that too. Now, since everything's been more isolating we haven't had a sense of community as much, but before that, it was a good experience. The only thing I'm frustrated a lot about is the kitchen mainly having one sink with the garbage disposal and not having any dishwasher. It's a very small kitchen. We have one washer and one dryer on each floor, and there are 11 floors or more, and that's been too frustrating. We just decided to just go out and do it, then come back here and dry it, but it's still been kind of stressful at times, and frustrating, and other people would need to use it too. There are a couple of staff members that are really good and some are not. The CEO took over months ago when they changed from the tax credit, and the other one retired, so I think there's gonna be an improvement.

My mother went to Golden West for a while and even though it was a nice area, the meals were not served together, so it was less friendly. She was there for a couple of years. It has bigger apartments, but it's HUD subsidized, so it's less expensive. It's just is lacking in the meals department. The apartments are larger and they're nice, but most buildings were built in the '50s. Even though it's been kept up very well, the elevators were slow and things like that. It's beautiful, and you can be seven floors up and have an amazing view and it's inexpensive because it's HUD subsidized. Those would be good things if you were younger. She liked it a lot.