Community projects

Senior Affordable Housing

St Ambrose Episcopal Church, in partnership with National Community Renaissance (National CORE), is proposing to develop a new residential community affordable to lower-income seniors aged 62+ in the City of Claremont. 

The new 59-unit housing community is proposed on an underutilized surface parking lot at the southern end of the Church property located at 830 W. Bonita Avenue. The development will include a variety of amenities, including a senior- oriented community room to serve as a hub for supportive services and programming accessible to all residents living onsite. The housing community will be designed to complement the Church and surrounding neighborhood through sustainable design and compatible architectural elements, while maintaining sufficient parking and open space. The development was designed to incorporate the following community benefits:

1) A long-term partnership 

St Ambrose will continue to own the land and will work closely with National CORE who will develop, build, and manage the housing portion of the site for a minimum of 99 years.

2) Addressing a community need

There is a significant and increasing need for affordable housing for senior residents especially those at risk of homelessness in the San Gabriel Valley.

3) Neighborhood beautification

The development will include new physical improvements to the Church property including landscaping and lighting.

Shower Program

Roughly 75,000 homeless people live in our midst, according to the current Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count. They grapple with extreme poverty, drug addiction, mental and often physical illness, and hopelessness. They are without even the least of resources. The mission of the Shower Program at St. Ambrose is to alleviate some of that suffering.

Unique in Los Angeles County, the Shower Program provides 45 unhoused and homeless people a hot meal, a shower, fresh water, and a chance to rest and socialize every week. It also offers a much welcome respite from the cold in winter and the heat in summer. The program is well known in the area, with new guests reporting that they learned of it on the street or through social service agencies.

The program is staffed by volunteers from the community and operates in the Parish Hall. Donations— towels, clothing, food, and personal hygiene products— fuel it, which we then distribute to our guests. Their need is dire. Basic rules of behavior are enforced to keep the environment safe so that our guests can find a bit of peace away from the stress of life on the streets.

Although homeless people are unseen members of society, the Shower Program affords them a rare place to get some of their needs addressed. Beyond a shower and a hot meal, guests can meet with their mental health counselor in the Parish Hall or take advantage of free health care through the Los Angeles County mobile medical unit, which provides bloodwork, medical treatment, and behavioral and psychiatric care on the campus. Veteran Affairs staff visit our armed forces vets, working to move them along the path to employment and housing.

Guests like Baseball Dave, Texas, and Mindarella tell us they live for Tuesdays and Fridays, that they’re blessed to know us, that their lives are so much the better for the Shower Program. They couldn’t be more appreciative.

The Shower Program operates on Tuesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. If you wish to live out your moral precepts and minister to those in need, contact the director, Anne Powell, at saintambrose@verizon.net for information about volunteering.

The program is sustained by a grant from the City of Claremont, the St Ambrose community and from individual donations. Please consider supporting the program so we can continue our good work. You can donate here!