The CHOA team presents a certificate of appreciation
to outgoing Mayor Sharon Kwan
Friend of CHOA,
The idea is to keep going. With so many housing changes on the federal, state, county and city levels, it is hard to keep track of it all. We have to keep going. CHOA continues to keep connecting with people and churches and the city, and to keep sharing what we know.
In this month of Black History month, we are inspired by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to keep going, on his view of preaching way back when he was in seminary in 1948.
On the one hand I must attempt to change the soul of the individuals so that their societies may be changed. On the other hand I must attempt to change the societies so that the individual soul will have a change.”
In that mindset, we keep going, and have 2 updates and one “Save the Date” notice for you:
- “Save the Date”: Saturday, April 18th will be our next Sharing Gathering. That is after Easter. Place this on your calendar to join us, to hear updates and help make housing to continue to happen here in Arcadia!
- Presenting outgoing Mayor Sharon Kwan a certificate of appreciation: In 2025, Mayor Kwan gave CHOA much of her time, joining us at three events. CHOA presented her a certificate of appreciation earlier this month, see the picture above. We so appreciate her connecting with us, speaking at our gatherings, and for speaking up for fair housing for residents in Arcadia. Read more below.
- Homeless Count recap: The homeless count occurred in January. Five CHOA team members and supporters were there. This is a very important service for the city, the county, and the unhoused. We need to know how many unhoused are in our city. We share details further below.
Peace,
–Mike Veerman
CHOA Team Lead
Save the Date: Saturday, April 18th, 2026
April 18th will be the next CHOA Sharing Gathering. We have these in-person gatherings on a Saturday morning, every 6 months. If you have not come for a while, do come, to hear what is going on, connect with those that working on housing, and to show that the faith community in Arcadia does care about housing.
Elected city officials usually come to these gatherings, so even your presence makes an impact showing that housing is important in Arcadia.
We will provide more details on the speakers and topics as we get closer to April.
Showing outgoing Mayor Sharon Kwan our appreciation
On February 3rd, CHOA presented a certificate of appreciation to outgoing Mayor Sharon Kwan. (See the picture at the top of this newsletter). She came to 3 CHOA events in 2025. CHOA is grateful that she took the time to be and speak with us.
- Sharon came to our March 2025 “CHOA Academy”, talking to us at the City Council Chambers after we toured the housing developments around Arcadia (see the picture above).
- She also came to 2 of our Sharing Gatherings in 2025 (see the picture below back in May 2025…on Mother’s Day weekend.)
- The second Sharing Gathering she attended was in November, on the Saturday that had pouring rain. She had made determined effort to be with us.
Outgoing Mayor Kwan also has spoken up for residents for fair housing. In particular, there was a development on 2nd Avenue over the last few years that has displaced many renting residents. Outgoing Mayor Kwan made sure they were fairly treated by the new landlord, and reviewed the situation a few times at city council meetings. That is caring for Arcadia residents in regards to housing.
Thank you outgoing Mayor Sharon Kwan!!
Homeless Count recap back in January
CHOA was grateful for the 5 CHOA team members and supporters that came to volunteer for the homeless count last month. We drive around Arcadia, counting the unhoused in our city. We join many others across LA County, in this Point-in-Time count, to see if our collective efforts to reduce homelessness are working.
All totalled, we had a group around 15 folks. We received instructions and reminders, after listening to the online videos before coming. We registered, made teams, and were off (see the pictures above and below.)
Our goal for next year is to have 13 CHOA team members and supporters come to the homeless count in 2027. We need more folks to cover the 13 city sections. (Our guess is 10 more from the city at large will come volunteer as well. That occurred this year!) It takes about 45 minutes to 2 hours to drive around one city section…we need to drive through each street. If we get 2 city sections, that means we can be driving around for 4 hours. And we start at 8:30pm, so that is a very long night. We just need more folks to help out, so it is done more efficiently.
The 2026 Homeless Count data should be posted online later this summer. In the meantime, you can see last year’s data on the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Dashboard.
