Friend of CHOA,
Working on housing is a constant effort. We like to share what CHOA is working on, as well as the faith community we are connected with. Below are the 3 topics in this newsletter.
- Sharing Gathering on Saturday, Nov. 15th: We are gathering again in-person, to provide updates on what is happening with housing in Arcadia. The Church of the Good Shepherd is hosting us!! This is their first time to host a CHOA event. So great to see.
- Lucile parcels: CHOA wrote another letter to LA County Supervisor Barger, regarding this vacant property in the middle of Arcadia. Read on why we are doing this below. We urge you to also write Supervisor Barger.
- Hills Church Food Distribution: We want to highlight again this church’s good work to provide so many families food relief, and making ends meet.
Making impacts…for people and housing…that is what CHOA is after. See how you can be a part of the effort.
Peace,
–Mike Veerman
CHOA Team Lead
Sharing Gathering on Saturday morning, November 15th
CHOA wants to share what is happening around affordable housing and homelessness to the Arcadia faith community. That is why we have a Sharing Gathering every 6 months. Try to come to at least one of these during the year.
We will gather on Saturday, November 15th, from 9:15am to 11:30am.
CHOA works to increase our connection to the faith community, so that is why we try to come to a different church for each of these gatherings. You know we are very excited to come to a church that is hosting their first CHOA event. We are grateful that the Church of the Good Shepherd (United Methodist Church) will host this upcoming gathering.
Below are some of the topics we will cover at the gathering:
- Lucile parcels – writing Supervisor Barger to grant these back to the City of Arcadia.
- Review the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, and coming affordable housing to Arcadia.
- The Homeless Count in Arcadia in the month of January
- Resource web pages for you on the CHOA website:
- Assisting the unhoused that you may encounter
- Finding affordable housing in our area
If you have not already, do RSVP in the link below. Registering in advance helps us get a good count of who will come, as well as you get a
quick stop at the registration table, just checking your name off the list. (You do not have to write your name and info down.)
RSVP for the Sharing Gathering on November 15th
The flier link is below. Click on the image or use the link below to download the PDF flier, and pass that around to friends, neighbors and other church members.
Sharing Gathering flier
Lucile parcels
CHOA is making a final push to have LA County grant the Lucile parcels back to the City of Arcadia. CHOA has written a letter to Supervisor Barger, with 10 folks signing it. We express our desire for this land – already designated for affordable housing – to be given back to the city, so they can decide which developer to build affordable housing there. The address of these parcels is 15-19 Lucile Street, Arcadia.
We show pictures above where we connected with this property back in October 2024, during our Sharing Gathering then, walking directly from the church where we met. We prayed together, for this land to have affordable housing.
The County is not convinced that Arcadia’s City Council would pursue affordable housing on these parcels. CHOA pointed out to Supervisor Barger that our City Council voted 4-0 (with one abstention) for the first of its kind Inclusionary Housing Ordinance in April this year, requiring affordable housing to be included in new developments over 30 units. Developers can choose to include 9% to 14% affordable housing units of the total units in their projects. Now, that shows City Council is pursuing affordable housing.
Unfortunately, the County is pursuing just selling this property, see the picture below. We want the County to change course, and grant these parcels back to the city. We advocate for affordable housing; this is a massive opportunity, in the middle of Arcadia, see the map below.
CHOA encourages you to join us writing LA County Supervisor Barger. Here are the key talking points to mention:
- Arcadia residents are open to affordable housing. You demonstrate that by writing.
- Arcadia City Council is open to affordable housing, as they have voted so twice…in the Rezoning in 2024, and the first-of-its-kind Inclusionary Housing Ordinance in April 2025, requiring developers to include 9% to 14% affordable housing units with projects over 30 units.
- We need affordable housing spread evenly throughout LA County, not just in lower income areas. We need affordable housing in affluent areas, like Arcadia.
- LA County just needs to grant these Lucile parcels back to the City of Arcadia, which formally requested to receive this property back in August 2024. Doing so will drastically decrease the cost of affordable housing for the project at this property.
Below are how to contact her office:
Email: kathryn@bos.lacounty.gov
Addresses:
869 Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration
500 W Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Or
215 N. Marengo Avenue
Suite 120
Pasadena, CA 91101
Hills Church’s Free Food Distribution
Hills Church continues their Free Food Distribution. They are a model to other Arcadia churches of the impact the faith community can have on the community. Many think Arcadia families are wealthy. That is not all true. There are some that are struggling. Hills Church has 250+ come on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays (9am to 11:30am), and feeding up to 600+ in those households. That is a huge impact. We show some recent pictures of folks waiting in line…while sitting…above and the last pictures below. They had to re-imagne how they approach food distribution, after the Eaton fire, and the large need/response.
Folks getting food relief is helping them remain housed, allowing families to make their income stretch a bit further, making the rent.
If you or you know of others that need food assistance, do direct them to Hills Church. The church address is 805 N. 1st Ave., Arcadia, CA 91006.
Hills Church continues to improve. They have 70,000 pounds of food coming in, so to move that much around, they have a new electronic palette mover, see the picture on the right.
Steven and Eileen Casey have been distributing food for 15 years from Monrovia, and now 3 years in Arcadia, at Hills Church. They have a whole team to pick up food Monday through Thursday, and sort the food on Friday, to prepare for the Saturday distributions.
They have 2 rooms filled with food. The picture on the right is a room just off of their Fellowship Hall.
The picture on the right is their 2nd room filled with food. This used to be the pastor’s office!!
In this picture on the right, is their new freezer, from the Food Bank. This is their 3rd industrial size freezer.
They do need help:
- On Thursdays, they load a lot of food. They need strong folks to help…or just a lot of folks…with many hands make quick work.
- They also need donations. They are exploring paying some of the most consistent volunteers, as they spend so much time on the effort.
