Write a proper, objective and interesting news story out of this information and interview. Use some of the important quotes from the interview and highlight the significance of the project to Pasadena: Pasadena's director of housing discusses the Salvation Army's major new homeless housing project The Hope Center

Pasadena Now sat down with Housing Director Bill Huang to unpack the most important points about  a new major facility for homeless people in Pasadena. 

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

The Salvation Army is set to open the Diane and John Mullin Hope Center, a 65-unit housing project for homeless individuals, on October 12. The grand opening will be marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:30 a.m. at its location at 1000 E. Walnut Street.
The event will be led by Lisa Guerrero from Inside Edition as the mistress of ceremonies. Local philanthropist Rebecca King Crews, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, Los Angeles County’s 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Commissioner Douglas Riley from The Salvation Army, Western Territory Commander, and Lt. Colonel Mike Dickinson, Southern California Divisional Commander from The Salvation Army are scheduled to attend.
The Hope Center is “a life-changing facility” developed by the Salvation Army Pasadena Tabernacle Corps.
INTERVIEW MR HUANG:
Therese (00:00):
Correct. Are you available now or would you rather me call at 4:00 PM
Bill Huang (00:06):
Let's see. Now is fine.
Therese (00:09):
Okay. Before we begin the interview, Mr. Huang, let me just remind you that this call will be recorded. And for starters, can you please state your name and your position within the organization, please?
Bill Huang (00:21):
Sure. My name is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON>, and I am the housing Director for the City of Pasadena.
Therese (00:27):
We understand that the Diane and John Mullin Hope Center will be opening, the grand opening will be on October 12th, and we understand that the City of Pasadena contributed to the construction and the realization of this project. So for our first question, Mr. Y Wang, can you share your thoughts on the significance of the Hope Center to the community of Pasadena?
Bill Huang (00:55):
Sure. The Hope Center will provide permanent supportive housing to chronically homeless individuals. And when somebody is homeless, the only thing that ends their homelessness is a permanent home. And so this is permanent housing. We're literally ending homelessness for the residents that will live there. That's really important. And then onsite services will be provided to address the myriad of service needs that the clients will have.
Therese (01:38):
And this facility, how many unhoused individuals in the community will be accommodated at the Hope Center?
Bill Huang (01:49):
I believe this project is 66 units. There's one unit that will be for a manager. So 65 individuals will have their homelessness ended by moving into that facility. Oh,
Therese (02:06):
Okay. So the units are a single occupancy only. It's not for perhaps two individuals or a family, correct?
Bill Huang (02:15):
That's correct, yes. No children.
Therese (02:19):
Oh, okay. And how does this new facility align with the city of Pasadena's broader goals regarding housing and homelessness? I understand. I am aware that there are a lot of initiatives by the city in collaboration with many nonprofits to alleviate this problem in recent years. And of course this year as well,
Bill Huang (02:50):
The City of Pasadena desires to end homelessness here in Pasadena. Currently, our most recent count 500, we counted 556 person experiencing homelessness here in Pasadena. And so it is critically important. The city has a number of initiatives, homeless services, homeless outreach, homeless prevention and housing, emergency housing, transitional housing, permanent housing to address this issue. So this is a very important piece. We have currently, this is our fourth permanent supportive housing project here in Pasadena. It's very important. We have one more that is under construction that should be finishing around March of next year, and that will be 69 units for chronically homeless seniors. So getting folks ending homelessness is really our end goal. And again, the people who move into the PAs and Hope Center, their homelessness will end when they move in.
Therese (04:12):
And an additional question that I have, Mr. Huang, is that in terms of the criteria in selecting the individuals who will be housed in the Hope Center, who will be the key decision makers on this? Is it going to be the city of Pasadena, or is it going to be perhaps the Salvation Army or both?
Bill Huang (04:38):
Yeah. Well, the city of Pasadena doesn't make the tenant selection. What we do do is we verify that everybody who is selected meets the income requirements. So they need to be extremely low income to move in there. And then the city of Pasadena also has a local preference. So the tenants that are selected there who come from Pasadena have the top priority to move into the building. But the actual tenant selection is done by the Salvation Army and their property management company together.
Therese (05:19):
Oh, okay. And do you have any knowledge of, is it going to be like unhoused individuals or individuals need to apply for it, or is it going to be the Salvation Army just picking from the list of individuals who are in housed?
Bill Huang (05:35):
Yeah, no, neither. What happens is, because this is for people who are experiencing chronic homelessness, folks don't apply for this particular housing. They come in through homeless caseworkers. So they have to be connected to a homeless caseworker who knows their situation. And then their names will be submitted up through a system called the Coordinated Entry System, and ultimately go to the Salvation Army. Salvation Army will sort through the names submitted and choose the most appropriate ones, and then the City of Pasadena will verify their incomes and verify that the local Pasadena preference was adhered to.
Therese (06:22):
Oh, okay. And can you delve into the role of the city of Pasadena played in partnership with the Salvation Army and other stakeholders to bring this project to fruition? What specifically did the city contributed to this project or initiative?
Bill Huang (06:43):
Our involvement was really from the very beginning. I think about four years ago, four and a half years ago, the Salvation Army had an idea that they needed to build a state-of-the-art food pantry. They had had a food pantry operated on that site for many years, but was operated out of an old office building, and it just wasn't serving their needs for a food pantry. The kind of state-of-the-art food pantries are more like warehouses as opposed to small, separate offices. And so they decided to tear down that they wanted to put forward a plan to tear down their existing office building and replace it with a state-of-the-art food pantry. So they were getting ready to undertake a capital campaign, and they asked the city if the city would submit a letter of support to support their food pantry. And the city looked at that and said, of course, we support food pantry because food insecurity is a big issue and a growing issue.
(08:02)
But we also pointed out to the Salvation Army that their site has development potential that would allow them to develop housing, affordable housing on the site in addition to their food pantry. And so the city was able to show them what the zoning allowed for density and how many units they could get. And the city also showed them how the project could be funded. And also indicated that if they want to go down this route and if they could come up with a plan, the city would support that the city would be the first one to submit, to make a financial commitment to the project. And so the Salvation Army thought about it, went out and visited some other sites, and came back and said, okay, we want to do it. And so we work with them. The city initially committed a million dollars, the first million dollars to the project, and then that enabled, eventually we upped that to 2 million, but initially it was 1 million later we committed an additional million.
(09:11)
But that enabled the Salvation Army then to go to the county, for instance, and compete for county funding, which they got, and then also to compete at the state level for low-income housing tax credits, which they also received. And then the city also has committed to, we've committed rental subsidies, a Section eight rental subsidies to that building. So we committed what are called project-based rental subsidies because people who are extremely low income cannot afford to pay their rent. So the rental subsidies are from the city committed to the project, and that enables extremely low income individuals to be able to pay their rent.
Therese (09:56):
That's true. And what are the expected short-term and long-term impacts of this facility on homelessness in Pasadena, Mr. Huang?
Bill Huang (10:08):
Well, we anticipate the vast majority of the individuals who will be housed there will be those who had been experiencing homelessness here in Pasadena. So it would have a direct impact on the number of homeless persons here in Pasadena. So we expect that to happen. We expect that the individuals that live there will be able to receive the services that they need, that their lives could be stabilized and secured, and that they would remain in this housing for a long period of time, that people would not be failing out of that housing, but would be successful there. And many will go on to be able to do other things. Many will even be able to go to work. Many will be able to get their mental illness under control, substance abuse issues.
(11:10)
They could be rehabilitated and that people will be able to be stabilized and really contribute to society overall. We also anticipate that this project with the food pantry will strongly address food insecurity here in Pasadena. And finally, because there's been a lot of talk and legislation proposed to develop to allow faith-based organizations to develop housing, affordable housing on their sites. And so this particular project, we believe is a example of doing exactly that and that this will hopefully encourage other faith-based organizations to look at this opportunity and to develop affordable housing as well in Pasadena as well as outside of Pasadena.
Therese (12:17):
In terms of the impact, how will the city measure the success of the Diane and John Mullin Hope Center over time?
Bill Huang (12:28):
Yeah, the success is how successful the individuals are on our other similar projects, permanent supportive housing projects, individuals who get housed there, well over 90% are still housed after the first year. And so, which means that then they have a very, very good chance of really living a life that is much more stable and not falling back into homelessness.
Therese (12:57):
And how does the city plan to sustain and potentially expand the services offered at the Hope Center?
Bill Huang (13:08):
Well, the city itself is not paying for the services. So the surfaces are being carried out and paid for by the Salvation Army, tapping into other funding sources. But we will continue to provide the rental subsidy, which means that the building's rental income will be very stable moving forward, which is really crucial to the success of developments like this.
Therese (13:40):
And our last question, Mr. Huang, from your perspective, what sets the Diane and John Mullin Hope Center apart from other initiatives aimed at tackling homelessness in the community?
Bill Huang (13:53):
Well, it hits the kind of final solution, which is permanent housing and permanent housing with services. So individuals, because being homeless is not a cause. Being homeless is a result of other kinds of issues, untreated mental health, for instance, untreated chronic health issues, substance misuse disorders. So to be able to put somebody in permanent housing, not a shelter, but permanent housing where they can stay for as long as they would like, and to provide the services that address the root cause issues of why that person homelessness was homeless to begin with, is really crucial. So this kind of development really hits all of those issues and ends people's homelessness permanently. And we need more of this kind of solution. We still need other solutions, interim solutions, and short-term solutions. We need those as well. But this is the kind of intervention that really ends a person's homelessness, even when they are chronically homeless.
Therese (15:15):
And I understand that the grand opening will be on October 12th, and the city of Pasadena will be there in attendance, correct?
Bill Huang (15:26):
That is correct.
Therese (15:27):
Okay.
Bill Huang (15:27):
We wouldn't miss it. We wouldn't miss it. We put in too much work and this too much of a, this is a great success. So yeah, we'd like to be there to celebrate and congratulate the Salvation Army for doing this. This was four and a half years worth of work to get this done, and the result is really good.
Therese (15:45):
And if I may ask Mr. Wong, what time is the grand opening on the 12th of October?
Bill Huang (15:55):
Let me look at my calendar. On the 12th, I have it as 10:00 AM starting at 10:00 AM
Therese (16:02):
10:00 AM That's going to be at Thursday, October 12th.
Bill Huang (16:06):
Correct.
Therese (16:07):
Okay. Well, those are the only questions that we have for you today, Mr. Wong, thank you so much for being available for us, and again, thank you for responding to our media request.
Bill Huang (16:19):
Sure. No problem. And thanks for shining a light on this issue. We hope that many more Hope Centers could be developed throughout all of LA County.
Therese (16:28):
Yes. Thank you again, and I hope you do. Have a great afternoon, Mr. Huang.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
You too. Thank you. Bye-bye now.