CHOA Events

CHOA has in-person gatherings every 6 months.  These are just 2 hours on a Saturday morning, from 9:30am to 11:30am.  Gratefully, about 20-30 folks show up.  Our past events are shown below.  These gatherings allows CHOA to share with the faith community what CHOA is doing on housing, what is going on with housing in Arcadia, and what is coming up.  These are also really helpful times to just connect with real people, and be encouraged by what others are doing.  Sometimes that helps us all see and be encouraged that, yes, we can make an impact…together..as we each do our part.

We like to go to a different church for each event.  If your church would like to host our next gathering, please contact CHOA.

Upcoming Events

Our next Sharing Gathering will be on a Saturday morning in April or May in 2025.  We are still preparing and planning for that gatheirng.  Stay tuned!!

We just had our last Sharing Gathering on Saturday, October 19th, from 9:30am to 11:30am.  Gratefully, Arcadia Community Church hosted our gathering.  See the flier on the right, and the first bullet point below.

Past Events

Below are the events CHOA has held since starting in the Spring of 2022.  We have an in-person Sharing Gathering every 6 months on Saturday mornings, to share updates and invite the faith community to be engaged; usually around 30 people come to these gatherings.  Take a look what we did by clicking the dates links below (dates in green).  We provide our handouts, slides, and videos for each event in the bellow links.  Contact us to get the password for these web pages (to see the videos).

  • Oct. 19th, 2024 – Our Sharing Gathering was at Arcadia Community Church.  In the first half of our time, we focused on the Inclusionary Ordinance, thanked City Councilmember April Verlato for her extraordinary service for 8 years, and especially on housing.  In the 2nd half, we heard updates from Hill Church on their food distribution, some flash updates on Safe Parking in Arcadia on not being able to go forward, and had a “field trip” to the nearby Lucile parcel, that is deemed for affordable housing.
  • Sept 14th, 2024Praying for Housing – Again, Hope International Church hosted our prayer time, for a 2nd year.  Click here for the list of our praises and prayer list.  We need to keep praying!!
  • April 20th, 2024 – This Sharing Session was thankfully at Hills Church again.  Our main focus was a new effort, Safe Parking Program.  We had Foothill Unity Center share, as well as hear from Pastor Sharon from Trinity Lutheran church in Pasadena.  They have held their Safe Parking Program for 2 years in Pasadena.  We also heard again from Mayor April Verlato, on the Homelessness Symposium in February, and little bit about affordable housing on the Lucile parcel.  CHOA shared on the Housing Element, on the Rezoning vote passed in February, and the upcoming Inclusionary Ordinance vote coming before City Countil in the next few months.
  • Nov. 4th, 2023 – This Sharing Session was at Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration.  Mayor April Verlato spoke about affordable housing being built by the San Gabriel Valley Regional Trust.  CHOA shared on the Housing Element, Affordable Housing, and briefly introduced the Safe Parking Program idea for Arcadia.
  • Sept. 15th, 2023Pray for Housing – We were led (and hosted) by Hope International Church in prayer for housing in Arcadia.  This is our prayer list for the next 12 months. Please continue to pray for housing until the next election in Nov. 2024.
  • April 29th, 2023 – This Sharing session was at the Hills Church, on what CHOA is doing, and what you can do to reduce homelessness, and build affordaable housing.
  • Nov. 5th 2022 – Our first Sharing Session was gathering to hear about Short-term efforts, the Housing Count, the Hills Church food distribtuion, and from Abundant LA.  We met at Santa Anita Church.
  • April 30, 2022Exploring Arcadia Housing Solutions…our first gathering, led by Jill Shook, with Making Housing and Community Happen, in Pasadena.  This gathering was our initial effort, and then we created a team, calling ourselves CHOA (Creative Housing Options in Arcadia.)  We are grateful to Foothill Unity Center for hosting us.