A newly opened affordable housing complex in Anaheim, California, is offering its formerly homeless and low-income residents a new lease on life. El Verano consists of 54 units in a three-story Spanish-style building and provides its senior residents with services to help integrate into the community. “We’re designing our places where people can live in dignity,” Rochelle Mills, president and chief executive of Innovative Housing Opportunities (IHO), told The Epoch Times. The property’s grand opening was held July 22, but it received its first resident last December. Mills said the process to fill a single unit is “arduous and time-consuming, taking anywhere from three to five months, with some cases taking nearly a year. “This isn’t unique to El Verano,” Mills said. “This is how affordable housing [works], particularly when you’re talking about permanent supportive housing.” Mills said one resident was working with a case manager from the regional center to secure a spot at El Verano, and it took the resident about seven months …