Claremont City Council 207 Harvard Ave. Claremont, CA 91711
Letter of Support for St. Ambrose Senior Affordable Apartment Community
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council:
Housing Claremont very strongly supports our neighbors, Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church and their partner National CORE as they develop a new permanently affordable senior housing community on the St. Ambrose Episcopal Church campus, 830 Bonita Ave. We are proud of the congregation at St. Ambrose and “we have their back.” We call on you and the city staff to support them vigorously in this development, one of several opportunities where we are committed to supporting this reuse of available land owned by religious congregations all around us.
The proposed affordable senior development will provide decency, kindness and comfort in rent-restricted homes for households that are not affluent. It will offer a mix of about 60 one- bedroom and two-bedroom apartments and a range of onsite community amenities. We are certain that there is at last a broad Claremont consensus as well as a broad California consensus to support abundant affordable housing for various special need, rent burdened and unhoused folks. That consensus has not always been heard. We advocate for affordable housing at opportunity sites across all residential parts of our city, and in the many nearby cities as well.
Homelessness, poverty, and lack of opportunity are a priority crisis. Each city and county must fulfill their Housing Plans and mandated share of solving the statewide housing crisis. Never has there been a stronger desire to end homelessness and create housing. Affordability and lack of housing supply are a persistent, escalating challenge across Southern California for families, veterans, people with disabilities, essential workers who can’t afford tolive anywhere near their work. The challenge hits hard on the rapidly growing senior population as home and rent prices continue to climb. Your 2021-2028 Housing Element reports that the city’s senior population has increased 46% since 2000, and that 37% of senior households are cost-burdened. Of these households, 62% are renters. We need much more new local affordable housing alternatives for the elderly – such as what is proposed at St. Ambrose.
Respectfully submitted,Rev. Gene Boutilier,
on behalf of the Board of the Housing and Homelessness Collaborative of Claremont.
Cc: The pastor and people of St Ambrose Episcopal Church
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