Register and buy a ticket for our 8th annual celebration for $30 donation.
-
Where: First United Methodist Church of Pasadena, 500 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA.
-
When: Saturday, Nov. 7, from 3:30-5:30 pm.
Thanks to generous donors, we can provide tickets for free or at reduced rate to those who cannot afford $30. Please contact anthony@makinghousinghappen.org for your comp ticket. No one who wants to attend will be excluded!
There is ample parking in the back of the church which can be accessed by way of Green Street. The event takes place in the Fellowship Hall. The entrance is from the parking lot.
OUR PROGRAM
-
Keynote speaker: Greg Comanor, an affordable‑housing developer and public‑policypractitioner based in Los Angeles, best known for his leadership roles at Daylight Community Development and involvement with Elysian Housing. which is developing a 133-unit 100% affordable housing project in east Pasadena, for families and people experiencing homelessness.
-
Karina Toro, a high school intern for MHCH, will discuss her experience living in affordable family housing in Pasadena.
-
Anthony Manousos, co-founder of MHCH, will speak about how affordable family housing benefits public schools.
Affordable Housing Rock Star Award honorees to be announced.
At our annual celebration we’ll not only honor those who championed housing justice, there will also be music and light refreshments and a chance to connect with those who are making a difference in the world of housing justice and community revitalization.
Celebrating successes.....
Affordable housing shapes every part of family life. When households spend over a third of their income on rent, they face constant insecurity, stress, and difficulty affording essentials like health care, food, and clothing. Children also feel the impact, with housing instability harming school performance. That's why we strongly support affordable family housing. Recent projects such as Roosevelt School housing for teachers and staff (shown in the rendering on the left) and Rosemead Apartments—68 units for low‑income families and 50 for residents exiting homelessness—(shown in the rendering on the right) show what committed advocacy can achieve. Over 400 units of affordable family housing are being planned for east Pasadena! A School Board‑commissioned study confirms that affordable family housing benefits PUSD far more than market‑rate development: since 2015, market‑rate units produced one student per 30 homes, while affordable family units produced one student per two. Right: Cynthia Kirby shares her moving story as an unhoused person and how affordable housing transformed her life. Thanks to MHCH, she has become a powerful affordable housing advocate!
|
Pasadena has made major progress: one in ten residents now lives in affordable housing, and more than 1,000 additional units are in the pipeline, including 500+ in East Pasadena. Countering NIMBY resistance remains essential. Stories about how affordable housing transform lives—like Cynthia Kirby’s—help shift hearts and minds. Two new Housing Justice Fellowship teams and partnerships with groups such as Abundant Housing and LA Voice have strengthened advocacy, contributing to a 50% reduction in homelessness. Wins like establishing the Black Legacy District and supporting Altadena’s emerging Black Cultural District show how policy and culture intersect.
|
Our goals for the future.....
 | We continue to partner with Pasadena’s Clergy Community Coalition (CCC), comprised of over 100 pastors that meet monthly to hear from and pray for city officials. MHCH and CCC’s Housing Justice Committee are working to promote the Right to Return for Altadenans displaced by the wildfires and for Pasadenans displaced for economic reasons and exclusionary policies. During the CCC’s 20th anniversary celebration in September, 2025, MHCH was honored for our housing justice work. We will also continue our educational work: our Housing Justice Institutes and our Housing Justice Forum. We will be promoting the use of The Unjust Housing Game (which we created and played since 2017) and is now published professionally! It was played at the 7th Day Adventist Ending Homelessness Conference in NorCal in November, 2025, by over 120 attendees. Joelle Chinnock, conference coordinator, said, “The Unjust Housing Game is a powerful, interactive tool that sparks meaningful conversation about the complex, painful and often overlooked history of housing segregation and inequality in America.” It’s also fun to play! Copies will be available at our annual event and through this link: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/the-unjust-housing-game .
|
Our Call to Action
To join one of our campaigns, or to learn more about our work, contact our Executive Director Bert Newton at ber@makinghousinghappen.org
FAQ or Contact
For more info contact anthony@makinghousinghappen.org and go to our website: makinghousinghappen.org
Tickets
Highlights
See all activity22Activity
