Friend of CHOA,
There are changes occurring and coming to Arcadia, in regards to housing. The picture above shows some of this change, and we share more below. Change at times can be difficult, for the city at times, and for residents. CHOA works hard to keep up, and tries to explain what is happening. The good news that many affordable housing units are coming to Arcadia!
Here’s what in this newsletter
- Sharing Gathering on April 18th: We are grateful that Arcadia Congregational United Church of Christ will host us. Join us! Get more information below, including the flier.
- Colorado Collection project is coming: This is replacing where Motel 6 is currently located, near Santa Anita Race Track, see the picture above. This project will bring 86 townhomes, of which 9 units will be “Moderate” affordable housing units. See more pictures and details below.
- CHOA’s Resource web pages: CHOA has been working on web pages that help folks get quick information if a person who is unhoused approaches their church, or folks in their church need affordable housing. We will explain more at our Sharing Gathering. For now, get a sneak preview below where to find this on the CHOA website, and what information we are providing.
Thank you for being open to make an impact for housing in Arcadia. When each of us do our part, positive change for housing comes to our city.
Peace,
–Mike Veerman
CHOA Team Lead
Sharing Gathering on Saturday, April 18th
Saturday, April 18th will be the next CHOA Sharing Gathering. We will share what is going on with affordable housing and homelessness in Arcadia. We meet at 9:15, and will end at 11:30am. Join us so you are up-to-date, and connect with those impacting housing in our city.
As usual in our gatherings, our City Councilmembers will probably come. So when you come, we show our elected officials that there are many that want affordable housing in Arcadia ,and to lovingly reduce homelessness in our city.
We are grateful that Arcadia Congregational United Church of Christ will host us. This is their second time to have CHOA come. The address to the church is 226 Colorado Blvd, Arcadia 91007. The flier is below.
RSVP so we know you are coming, using the below link.
Register for the Sharing Gathering on April 18th
If you like to get the PDF of the flier, and pass it on to others, or place it on your church welcome table, see the link below.
Colorado Collection project coming to Arcadia
On March 17th, City Council approved with a 5-0 vote the Colorado Collection housing project. This brings 86 townhomes, of which, 9 are “Moderate” income level affordable housing units. These are for home ownership, not rental units. The townhomes will be 2 and 3 bedrooms, and be 3 stories high, including 2 garaged parking spaces for each unit. The project plan is pictured above.
9 “Moderate” units out of 86 units is 10%, and that exceeds the 5% requirement for ownership projects in the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance passed by City Council last year. Go to the 22nd minute of the below video, if you like to review the ownership portion of the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance.
To get a better view of where this is in Arcadia, this replaces Motel 6 near the Santa Anita Race track. This project will also demolish the headquarters of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, and it will be adjacent to the Barnhart School’s southern playground. In the map below, the project will be in the area outlined in green. The church where we are meeting is in the orange rectangle. You can see we will be very near that project site when we gathering.
Further below are 2 more renderings, from the corners of the streets of Colorado and San Juan Drive, as well as Santa Rosa Road.
This brings the total of affordable housing to 107 in Arcadia, see the breakdown below.
Source from City of Arcadia website: https://www.arcadiaca.gov/government/development_services/housing/affordable_housing.php#acc_0_panel_1
Resource web pages on the CHOA website
CHOA is a housing advocate volunteer group. We work on connecting and speaking with City Council, and churches. Over these last 4 years, we have learned so much.
At times, others reach out to CHOA for housing placement. Even though that is not CHOA’s purpose, we can actually help. We figured we create web pages to provide Resources — information and contacts – to get into these affordable housing units built or coming to Arcadia.
In addition, we know churches are approached by people who are unhoused. We want the churches to have a quick reference for who to call. (And in Arcadia, the group to call is LACADA.).
Check out our web pages, see the link below. In the above screen shot, we show where to find these 4 Resource web pages on the CHOA website. We hope you find that very easy to find.
https://choaarcadia.org/resources
We list the 4 Resource web pages below, with brief descriptions.
- Homelessness – Case Management: Basically, call LACADA, the housing case managers. We have 3 in Arcadia. They work to connect with people who are unhoused, and connect them to services, when they are ready.
- Homelessness – Other Services: If you sense the person who is unhoused, just needs a meal, or is ready for housing, we provide some near-by resources.
- Affordable Housing Placement: There is a growing list of opportunities in Arcadia for affordable housing. We also provide the income chart on who qualifies, across LA County. You may be very surprised that those income levels are quite high. We list both General and Senior affordable housing in Arcadia.
- Eviction Prevention: If you know anyone that is struggling with rent, or other financial costs, that puts them at risk of being evicted, call LACADA. They can assist on a one-time basis. CHOA wants to make sure everyone knows about this, so this service can be used. It is more cost effective to keep people in their homes, rather than having more folks fall into homelessness.
We will review these in a bit more detail in this upcoming Sharing Gathering. See if these are helpful. Let us know if you have suggestion to make these even better.