Sharing Gathering on October 19, 2024

Grateful, 29 folks joined us on Saturday, Oct. 19th, 2024, for our Sharing Gathering, see the picture above.  We so glad Arcadia Community Church hosted our October 19th gathering, see the picture above.  Pastor John Scholte gave the opening Scriptural reflection, and prayer.  Additionally, so many of their members joined us.  

Unfortunately, we were not able to video record our session, so we just have pictures to share with you at this time, as well as slides and our handout, see the links below.

Handout: https://choaarcadia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CHOA-SharingSession-Handout-202Oct.ver3_.pdf

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TRjl4JsonHgBi5Vj3SeahNzwcvSCgdCx3uR7xYs5vAE/edit

We focused on affordable housing, and in particular, the Inclusionary Ordinance, which is coming before City Council for a vote in the next few months.  We have mentioned this a few times now, as this has been taken many months for City Council to carefully review the proposed plan.  The first half of the slides below show our key points.  This deals with the percentage of affordable housing units in new developments coming to Arcadia.  The proposed structure is to allow developers to choose one of the 3 options. 

  • 9%: Very Low
  • 11%: Combo
    • 5% – Very Low
    • 6% – Low
  • 14% Low

We thanked City Councilmember April Verlato for 8 years of service.  We presented to her an award, to recognize her sacrifice, leadership and persistence in working on topics of homelessness and affordable housing in Arcadia.  She has just been outstanding.  3 of us gave our thanks to April, sharing our perspective and stories, on how much we appreciate April.  Angela Iniquez pictured to the right started the sharing.  At the end, we prayed for April, and all took a picture with her (see below), showing how appreciative we are of her, and her efforts.  Thank you April !!

CHOA is so touched by Hills Church’s free food distribution, on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of every month.  From 9am to 12pm, they provide fresh produce and other food.  About 200 families come to this distribution.  The church address is 805 N. 1st Avenue, in Arcadia.  In the picture to the right, Stephen and Eileen Casey gave a summary of their efforts, and explained the impact they have and the challenges they face.

Also, we had some flash updates.  Sadly, we explained why our year long effort on Safe Parking in Arcadia had to cease, due to Foothill Unity Center needing to shift their priorities, under new leadership.  We also explained the dynamics of the elections for City Council.  (At the time of the gathering in October, the elections had not occurred.  Now we know that David Fu won in District 1, and Paul Cheng won a second term in District 4.)

Lastly, we walked to the Lucile parcel at the end of our time together, as it was so close to the church.  This parcel is in the process of moving from the County, back to the City of Arcadia.  This land is deemed for affordable housing.  We talked about what this could mean, and imagine many families living on this land, with stable housing.  We prayed for this land having affordable housing.  It was good to connect with the land, and know exactly where this is in Arcadia.  We show people there at the parcel, as well as the size of the land…about one acre…see the 2 pictures below.

CHOA-2024-Oct19-HillsChurch-FoodAtTrack