Clara grew up in Beaumont, Texas and has been a woman of independent means her whole life. Diagnosed with polio at age three, Clara underwent surgeries every summer of her childhood. Even still, she thrived on her own eventually living in a two-story Victorian house in the Los Angeles area for fifteen years.

Until one day in 1999, Clara’s life came to a screeching halt. She was diagnosed with Post-Polio Syndrome and her day-to-day life became nearly unmanageable. It reached a point where she couldn’t climb the stairs of her home on her own. “I was actually crawling up and down the stairs,” Clara expressed. “I was paying a neighbor to take my power wheelchair apart, carry it downstairs and put it together again each time I needed to go out.”

Clara’s physical condition was failing, and she needed extra help. She began seeking programs and resources that could change her life for the better. After a two-year search for an accessible ground-floor apartment she could afford, Clara found her chance at life again: In Fall 2004, she was contacted about an opening at Havenhurst Apartments. Clara quickly got her paperwork together and sent in her application. The rest is history, and Clara has called Havenhurst home ever since. She even remembers the day when she was handed her set of keys to her apartment… with tears in her eyes. “I decided to leave the past behind,” Clara recalled, smiling ear to ear. “I can attain my goals and dreams to keep working longer and healthier.”

With the stability of housing, Clara now lives a full and productive life regardless of her challenges.