Friend of CHOA,
We are into the new year, and the fire and recovery have brought increased challenges. As people of faith, we bring hope, grace, and mercy. Thank you for helping out, and for reading this, even when you may be busy or tired.
And today is a new day. Lamentations 3:22-23 from the Christian Scriptures shows us hope even in the midst of lament. This hope comes from God. We need to be ready…to expect God will act wonderfully.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
This newsletter highlights these many key topics in housing in Arcadia for this month. We know there is a lot of material, and 2 videos, in this newsletter. Each is important. We don’t want to overwhelm you, but read a bit, come back to this another day, and read a bit more.
Also, keep in mind, we are very focused on affordable housing, and keenly watching when the Inclusionary Ordinance will come to a vote at City Council, and we’ll keep you informed. We do mention more information on this below.
Here’s what is in this newsletter:
- Fire update: With the terrible fire and its destruction, we share a bit of information, a helicopter crew preventing the fire coming to Arcadia, and fire relief links.
- Meeting with Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Kwan: CHOA and supporters met with Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Kwan. She shared what she is looking forward to this year, and CHOA did the same. We touch on key topics, especially the Inclusionary Ordinance. Read more below on key points, and even how you should give quick online comments back to the city; they need to hear from us.
- Rescheduled Point-in-time Homeless Count in Arcadia: LA County rescheduled the PIT Homeless count, and in Arcadia that will be on Wednesday, February 19th, at 8pm. Join in and register. The city needs our help.
- City of Arcadia’s Fall Newsletter focuses on homelessness: The City of Arcadia is very aware of the impact of homelessness in our city. The City contracts out housing navigators from LACADA, to connect with those unhoused in Arcadia. If you missed it, please review the city’s newsletter that highlighted homelessness, and how we can help even in small ways.
- Elara affordable housing coming in unincorporated Arcadia: There is a new project nearly completed that will provide 90+ affordable housing units, including permanent supportive housing. This project has caused a stir among Arcadia residents, opposing this development. We share the basic information. Shouldn’t we be for this effort?
If you like to join the CHOA team, let us know. We do need more members. We are all volunteers, so having more folks to engage or just communicate with others makes a big difference. None of us knows it all, or can do it all…we just do our part, large or small.
Peace,
–Mike Veerman
CHOA Team Lead
Fire Relief Update
The fires have been so terrible, widespread, and hard to recover. Thank you for all you have done already.
Arcadia was spared much of that damage and trauma. There are people that made that possible. The New York Times shares a story of helicopter pilots fighting against the fire during the “hurricane”-like winds, and preventing Arcadia from further fire damage seen in other areas. Read about that in the below article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/us/wildfires-copter-17.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Below again are key fire relief and other fire related updates, from the City of Arcadia, as well as U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu.
www.ArcadiaCA.gov/2025Windstorm
https://chu.house.gov/EatonFire
CHOA met with Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Kwan
Last week, CHOA team members, and supporters met with Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Kwan. We heard her perspectives around housing and homelessness in Arcadia. The CHOA team expressed our goals, focuses and perspectives. There were 12 people at the gathering, see the picture at the top of this newslettter.
Here were the key points:
- There are many challenges in Arcadia to build affordable housing, and work on reducing homelessness.
- CHOA and the faith community need to keep being engaged, and show up to provide our perspectives, mainly because it seems like City Council only hears from those opposed, especially around working with the unhoused.
- We need to show our diverse voice (across denominations and cultures) of the faith community in Arcadia, all for building affordable housing and providing needed services to the unhoused to get them off the streets and parks of Arcadia.
- There are a spectrum of solutions that can help. We need to find ways to make those work in Arcadia.
We touched on the Inclusionary Ordinance. This is mainly around the percent of affordable housing units in new developments with 20 or more units. The city has spent many months to get what is right for Arcadia, and has created an excellent slide and video to explain this all. You have heard from CHOA on this a few times now. Please watch the 30 minute video below, and give a comment of support, back to the city. The city needs to hear back from us; please use the link below.
https://www.arcadiaca.gov/IHO
Key point: Affordable housing in Arcadia is not free housing, for the unhoused. Affordable housing is by income (so that means folks have a job), and depending on how many people are in the family, and combined income, your rent is calculated.
Rescheduled PIT Homeless Count for February 19th:
Due to the fires, LA County rescheduled the Point-in-Time (PIT) Homeless Count. For Arcadia, the count will occur on Wednesday, February 19th, starting at 8pm at the Arcadia Community Center.
CHOA gave a bit of background information in our last newsletter, see the link here. Please review that, especially on why the Homeless Count is important.
https://choaarcadia.org/fire-relief-info-and-the-homeless-count-jan-2025/
The Homeless count is being done simultaneously throughout LA County. Each city does a count, and Arcadia of course is organized.
The City of Arcadia needs many of us to volunteer to help with the count. They need 50 volunteers, and so far, there are about 10 signed up.
Basically, the key things to know are below:
- We start at 8pm at the Arcadia Community Center, to get organized and get assigned sections of the city for each of us to cover. It takes about 2 to 4 hours to finish. Yes, that can be late.
- Ideally, we got out in teams of three, in one car. One drives/navigates through the assigned section of the city, one is looking for and counting folks that are unhoused, and the 3rd person enters the results in the phone app. If you have a team of 2, that still works: one drives, the other enters the count in the app, while you both look for folks that are unhoused (you are driving slowly). You all register as a team, and it is best to register as family, to not spread COVID to others. You need to be over 18 of age to volunteer.
- You need to complete a 30 minute on-line training before February 19th, on what to do, how the counting process works, and just be familiar with the app on your phone (and install it before the count).
- We stay in our cars. You don’t have to walk around. We don’t open tents, as we need to respect people’s privacy. If you find a situation is too risky or uncomfortable, you do not need to go into dark areas.
- Register before February 19th. To register, use one of the 2 links below. See the flier below as well.
City of Arcadia’s highlights homelessness in their Fall newsletter:
The City of Arcadia highlighted the work and stories on homelessness in their Fall 2024 newsletter, see the link below. This newsletter is mailed to all Arcadia residents. You might have missed this. Also, CHOA knows that many that attend Arcadia churches do not live in Arcadia, so we are sharing this so you all can read/review this as well.
This city newsletter points out that the City of Arcadia pays for housing navigators that work with the unhoused in Arcadia to communicate with them, and find resources and even housing. The housing navigators are with LACADA (Los Angeles Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse). This is their website: lacada.com. As a city, we are very fortunate to have LACADA work in Arcadia, and provide constructive, persistent, and effective services to those unhoused in Arcadia. The key thing to know is the City of Arcadia is spending resources to find solutions for the unhoused. It just takes a long time, and we hope the city does not give up. We as the faith community should also be part of the solution.
We are able to connect with LACADA as needed. If you or someone you know in Arcadia is experiencing homelessness or is at risk of becoming homeless, call (562) 844-1484 or email arcadia@lacada.com. This is very helpful if an unhoused person comes to your church for help. See the link and flier below for more info.
https://cms9files.revize.com/arcadia/Homeless%20Services%20(Public%20Posting%20Flyer).pdf
Elara project:
CHOA has just learned about the Elara project in the last few months. And it has quickly become a hot topic in the city, especially around homelessness. We want to get you up to speed as well.
The project has 90 units total. 45 units will be for affordable housing. That is the largest amount of affordable housing units in any new development in and around Arcadia. That is truly great news.
It is in unincorporated Arcadia, on Live Oak. The address is 4217 Live Oak Avenue. This means the planning/approval process is done by LA County. The City of Arcadia – and our City Council – does not have jurisdiction in this area.
The main uproar/opposition is regarding the other 45 units. Those are permanent supportive housing directly for unhoused folks. Of course, the exact time an unhoused person gets housing, they are no longer unhoused. They also get wrap-around services, like case management (done by Union Station in Pasadena, with 50 years of experience), and treatment for alcohol and drug abuse, and mental health services will be provided if applicable. The plan is designed to keep them housed.
You can view the features of the project in the website below.
https://www.elaraarcadia.com
The developer of this project is Affirmed Housing. They have been doing this around California for a while. They have provided an on-line community event in September, and an in-person informational event at Arcadia City Council on November 19th.
With the City of Arcadia reluctant/unable to directly meet the needs of our unhoused neighbors, it seems any effort to meet the need is met with strong opposition in Arcadia. And the opposition is large and vocal. CHOA shares the video of that meeting…yes, it is many hours, but you can skim the video and get a sense of the points they are making.
Here are the questions for us, as the faith community.
- Can we allow the opposition to be the only voice speaking in Arcadia?
- Are we really opposed to folks that are unhoused to get off the streets, and be housed near Arcadia?
- Are we safer with unhoused folks remaining on the streets, or should we try to address their individual needs?
The video of the November 19th informational meeting is below. Yes, it is very long…4 hours. You can skim it to watch certain parts. You can watch Affirmed Housing provide their information. After that, you can hear the mindset of those with questions and comments.
HeySocal.com wrote a fair article, after the meeting, see the link below.
https://heysocal.com/2024/11/19/public-meeting-set-for-tuesday-on-elara-housing-project-in-arcadia
CHOA has written a letter of support for the Elara project to Affirmed Housing, and CCing Arcadia City Council (at CityCouncil@ArcadiaCA.gov), as well as LA County Supervisor Barger (at kathryn@bos.lacounty.gov). We want to make sure it is clear to all parties that there are people in Arcadia that support both affordable housing, and permanent supportive housing near and in Arcadia. We urge you and/or your church committee to do the same. Officials will think everyone in Arcadia is opposed to this development if we do not write to explain our perspective and support for this project.
