SANTA MONICA – A local laundromat is in jeopardy of closing and the person it would devastate the most is a 93-year-old woman who called it home for more than 10 years.
Marie Elizabeth Haist is on her way out, and although she has nothing to wash she is going to the laundromat. Even at 93, she makes the trip every day, but what she doesn’t know is that soon all that could change.
For Haist, known to her friends as Mimi, going to the laundromat is more than just a thing to do. It is where she makes friends and boyfriends too.
“I like them young,” says Mimi.
It is a place that has brought out the best in people. For 18 years while Mimi was homeless, she slept in the laundromat, on a plastic chair, between the washing machines.
After some time the community came together and made themselves responsible for her. They even made a documentary about Mimi, they also pay her medical bills, rent, clean her, and feed her.
“I gotta have my coke, I’m not supposed to drink it, but I’m 93, I’ll drink it anyway,” says Mimi.
A looming remodel means big changes on the horizon. Stan Fox has owned the Santa Monica laundromat since 1978, he comes in almost every day to check equipment and collect some of the revenue.
“The landlord is planning to remodel the center and would like to have the laundry upgraded,” says Fox.
The remodel means hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments and a rent hike just under 50 percent.
“With the rent that he wants I don’t know if I can make it,” said Fox.
Fox says the landlord has been really accommodating with him, and has cut him slack for years, but this time he will probably have to sell his business.
What holds him back is the people that make up this place. Too heartbroken to speak with Mimi for now, Fox hopes the news won’t crush her when the change eventually comes.
So, for now the community is in limbo, unsure of whether the laundromat will change ownership or disappear altogether.