CRA/LA-Assisted Complex Expands Disabled Teen’s World

For 14-year-old Emmy Morales, who is disabled and walks with the aid of a rollator, her family’s new apartment in Koreatown, has brought new-found freedom.

The Hobart, built, in part, with a $1.2-million loan from Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA), is equipped with entrance ramps for handicapped access.  “I love my new home,” added Emmy, an eighth grader at John Burroughs Middle School. 

Prior to their new home, Emmy, Carolina and her husband, Milton Morales, a gardener, lived for nearly eight years in a one-bedroom apartment a couple of blocks down the street that lacked a handicap access ramp. The old building also had an old-fashioned elevator whose two doors had to be manually opened and closed, making it impossible for Emmy to handle alone.  For Emmy to leave and enter, her mother or father had to carry her up and down the stairs. With tears in her eyes, Carolina said the family faced many hardships because of her daughter’s disabilities.

“Emmy didn’t really want to go outside very often,” said her mother, Carolina Flores, “but everything has changed since we moved into our new place. Now, Emmy wants to go out all the time and does it on her own.”

In the new building, Emmy not only is able to come and go outside much more easily but has access to features within the building that have expanded her world. They include the community room with its exercise equipment, enabling Emmy to follow her doctor’s recommendation that she exercise her legs on a regular basis, and the computer room, where she can access the free Internet service.

“I’m not really good with computers, but Emmy is a computer expert!” Carolina says. “I can see that my daughter enjoys all these things and she is happy.” 

Emmy herself has big dreams for her own future.

“I want to be a doctor when I grow up so that I can help people like me get better and get treated,” she said. “I would like to especially work with children.”

The $16.9-million Hobart apartments are within the Wilshire Center/Koreatown Redevelopment Project Area in Koreatown. The neighborhood has the highest population density of all neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

The five-story art deco apartment building replaced an existing 16-unit dilapidated building and was designed by the Koreatown-based, architectural firm of Archeon International Group. The new complex increased housing in the neighborhood, eliminated blight and enhanced the attractiveness and security of the 900 block of South Hobart Boulevard near the newly expanded Hobart Elementary School.