From the sunny window of her new apartment, Suzanne Lee, 73, can see palm trees in the distance. But never mind that view. Once homeless, the former paralegal said what she treasures most is the perspective from her 300-square-foot apartment in the newly-opened Diane and John Mullin Hope Center in Pasadena.
“I have a private bathroom, my own stove, my own oven,” Lee said. “It’s like I’m in the Twilight Zone. I pinch myself that it’s really real. Already, I’m sleeping through the night. I don’t have to be afraid all the time.”
Lee is one of 65 residents of the $32-million housing project owned by the Salvation Army Pasadena Tabernacle. About 300 people, including many donors, toured the four-story building Thursday, Oct. 12, as leaders and residents christened the long-awaited hub. They took in the first-floor food pantry, offices for social services, a workout room, laundry room and multipurpose room.
The 42,000-square-foot center at 1000 E. Walnut St. is an integral piece in the city’s hopes in finding solutions to the homeless crisis, leaders said. Its 65 studio apartments will provide permanent supportive housing for single adults experiencing homelessness. It will contain offices offering social services such as job training, life skills classes and drug and alcohol recovery programs.
“I have a fridge, can you imagine that?” Lee said. “Food will keep now. I love cooking and I’ve made shrimp scampi, I’ve made mashed potatoes. From our patio, we get a view of the mountains. I want the public to know the faces of the homeless are not just about drugs and alcohol.”
Lee, who said she grew up in San Marino and graduated from the USC, was a single mom with two sons when a series of medical calamities forced her out of the workforce.
“I had breast cancer, was treated for that and then I fell and I lost hearing in one ear,” she said. “I had a stroke.” When she couldn’t afford to buy the trailer home she lived in, the…
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