Month: June 2021

Rosanna Marie Allen was born in Ventura, CA in December 1983. She was named after the song “Rosanna” by Toto, and moved to Newbury Park with her mother, brother, and sister when she was 13 years old. Rosanna enjoyed taking care of animals since she rescued her first kittens as a kindergartener.

At the age of 18, Rosanna was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, the first of many immune disorders to follow.  She went from being a straight A’s student in honors classes to being in danger of not even passing. However, Rosanna took matters into her own hands, completed her high school, and ended up graduating early with straight A’s.  Although Rosanna suddenly lost her father when she was 22 years old, she worked as a veterinary assistant for several years and even had her own pet sitting business for a few years until she moved to Oregon to get married.  However, Rosanna ended her marriage due to health issues and moved back home in 2008. She quickly found herself homeless, unemployed, and uninsured; she stayed in shelters as in need of serious medical care. Before taking time off to get her health back on track, Rosanna was attending Ventura College and was halfway through two degrees, a Bachelor in Business Administration and Psychology. Rosanna is in the process of plotting her return to finish those degrees.

Many Mansions has been Rosanna’s home for the past 11 years now. She is grateful to have a stable place to live, and to receive help from our case management program. Her mission in life is being a voice for the animals and a voice for the voiceless.

Shadow Hills hosted Many Mansions’ first residential service programs! Not only did we introduce the Homework Club in 1998 (the ‘Afterschool Homework Literacy Program’) in the newly renovated Community Building, but we hosted an English as a Second Language (ESL) program and a Karate program; On November 12, 2000 Shadow Hills suffered a major fire on the second and third floors of ‘243’ Building. There were no injuries, but the fire caused more than $1 million in property damage; Many of the residents who were displaced by the fire temporarily lived at the Village Inn Motel, which later became the Esseff Village Apartments. Thanks to the support of countless faith-based and other community organizations, daily food provisions were distributed to all displaced residents at the Soltow Center (Villa Garcia Apartments Community Room);  Several months later, in June of 2001, a motor vehicle ran through the Community Room window; For many years, Interface (a social services agency) leased five units at Shadow Hills for their emancipated youth program; We have run the Food Share program out of Shadow Hills for many years. There is a mural next to the pool. Several of the boats in the mural have names related to the parties involved in the rehabilitation.