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He admits he thought that his wife Sharon's proposal was crazy and laughed it off. But after watching a documentary the owner's son Shawney Cohen had made, they learned that the strip club had a transitional housing facility attached to it and had a hunch that the bizarre venue might just work.Sue's Inn, the housing facility, is Manor owner Roger Cohen's personal project to help the poor. As someone who grew up in poverty, he wanted to help people who were recovering from addiction, fresh out of jail, or simply unable to pass credit checks or put down a security deposit on a place to live. In all, there are 35 inhabited rooms directly attached to the Manor.
Roger told me that he had doubts about the Ninabers' proposal for a church. "I thought they were crazy; I thought there were 101 reasons not to do it," he said. "It's a strip club! I figured there was going to be backlash from the community."
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"What we hear from people who come here is that they feel like people look at them differently when they go to [other churches]," Jack said. "Maybe they don't have anything to wear or they have tattoos or they feel judged—people look at you weird."
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