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Serving Its Youngest Residents
This means that residents such as Ted Suess can live independently. "It's a convenient location near my mother, who is 87," Suess said. He has lived at Pembridge Square for 18 of the 50-some years he has lived in Wheaton.
Suess does not have a car, but can walk to anything he needs. Occasionally his mother drives him to restaurants out of the neighborhood, but they also go to Barnaby's Pub, a block away, or Ferdinand's Restaurant, about two blocks away. There are many other casual restaurants as well as a wide variety of small markets and other services along University Boulevard, a block from Pembridge Square.
In addition to a convenient location, the complex has nice people, Suess said. Though he finds language a barrier with most of his neighbors, he said he likes to be friendly. "I say, 'hola,' " he said, adding that he doesn't otherwise speak Spanish.
His neighbor, Song Lac, has lived at Pembridge even longer than Suess. "Through four owners," Lac said. He moved into a three-bedroom unit 21 years ago, shortly after he arrived in the United States from Vietnam.
After helping his eight children immigrate and settle into U.S. life, he and his wife moved to a one-bedroom where they have lived for the last 16 years. He takes pride in keeping his apartment very clean. Some of his children have urged him to move, but he does not wish to. "This area is very good," he said.
Sabrina Copelin and her children, some of the newest residents, have lived at Pembridge Square only two months, but share Lac's and Suess's need for affordable housing. Copelin discovered the apartments "while driving past one day." She plans to get her daughter, 6, and son, 12, involved in the after-school homework club that meets in the Pembridge Square community center from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays.
The homework club and other programs at the community center help parents connect and give all residents the chance to build skills. Parents say they get to know each other through the homework club and pre-kindergarten activities.
Copelin said, "The after-school program is the best."
