The bedrooms in Renato Apartments come with furniture, private bathrooms, kitchenettes, closets, cabinets and, in some cases, a view of Skid Row.

The non-profit Single Room Occupancy Housing Corporation had a luncheon Thursday afternoon honoring its latest housing project, a renovated hotel-turned-apartment complex that has 96 units reserved for homeless or very poor people.

The Complex is on 531 S. San Julian St., surrounded by the large homeless population of Skid Row.

The luncheon featured enthusiastic speeches from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilwoman Jan Perry and Robert Smith, a Vietnam War veteran who now lives in Renato Apartments.  

"A guy like me, you don't want your kids to support you," Smith, 62, said in his speech.  "There's something wrong with that."

But a $110,000 heart operation left Smith, a former electrical contractor, broke.  For the first time in his adult life, he said, he had stopped working. He moved into his car, but then it got towed.  He then stayed with friends in a two-bedroom apartment.

"Christmas day, 2007.  Two more relatives show up, say, 'Hey, I need a place to say.' So, I'm out."

He came to Skid Row and stayed in the Russ Hotel as part of a transitional living program for Veterans.  While there, case managers helped him get back on his feet, he said, and he eventually found out about Renato Apartments.

"You oughta see my apartment. It looks just like the pictures,"  Smith said, now dressed in a tie, glasses and a beige suit.

SRO has 28 properties holding 2300 private units. The units are used for emergency, transitional and permanent housing.

An SRO press release says that many of their 185 employees live in SRO housing or are formally homeless.

At the luncheon, some residents of the building helped serve the food and lead tours of apartment showrooms. 

Other residents who weren't working the event relaxed in the building lobby with plates of food, making small-talk with security guards. 

And one resident stormed out of an elevator packed with visitors, saying it was too crowded.  

"We know that permanent, supportive housing works," Villaraigosa said in his speech.  

Though Smith said he dreams of eventually saving enough money to get out of the area, and move somewhere like Bel Air, he is grateful that he no longer spends his days waiting in long lines, wondering where he will sleep.

"Once again, I'm normal."