Rev. Andrew (Andy) J. Bales, M.A.T.

CEO

Andy brings over 20 years of experience in community outreach and service to “his homeless friends”, as Andy puts it, as he leads Union Rescue Mission into a new era of unique and innovative services for Los Angeles’ Skid Row community. 

Andy’s vision for the future of the Mission is most definitely in keeping with the Union Rescue Mission’s long and distinguished history of service in the City of Los Angeles.   Established in 1891, the Mission has always served the most desperate men, women and children of the community. 

One of Andy’s earliest challenges as President of the Union Rescue Mission, prior to becoming CEO, was to assist in the developing of transitional housing for mothers and their children living in the Mission’s homeless shelter and in neighboring SRO hotels in and around Skid Row.   He is also committed to providing permanent supportive housing for senior women away from the mean streets of Los Angeles.  Hope Gardens Family Center, in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest near Sylmar, is being developed in stages to serve this growing population of abandoned and desperately poor women with children and elderly women.  The Senior Women’s Permanent Supportive Housing facility at Hope Gardens was opened in August 2006. 

As Hope Gardens Family Center becomes a reality, Andy is looking at expanding programs for homeless men in the community.  He is eager to address issues of transitional and permanent supportive housing for men who are looking for an opportunity to overcome homelessness and become self-supporting.

Andy has many awards and honors for his community service, including: being named as the 930^th Point of Light by President George Bush in 1992, receiving the 1999 Des Moines NAACP Community Service Award, and receiving the 2004 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award from the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Pasadena. He has been featured in Leadership Journal’s article “Great to Good Churches” and is a frequent guest speaker at conferences, schools, and clubs.

Andy is currently working on the final phase of his Doctor of Ministry degree at Bakke Graduate University in Seattle, Washington.  He will add this degree to several other academic credentials: a Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) from Drake University (1983), and a Bachelor of Arts in Theology from Bethel College (1980). Andy has also completed 50 hours toward a Ph.D. in sociology from Iowa State University.

At his own home, Andy and wife Bonnie (a nurse) have six children, ranging in age from 16 to 26. In addition, Andy and Bonnie often provide a home for foster children.    

“As we partner with others and God does His miraculous work through us, I believe we will see each and every mom and child move off of Skid Row and into a home, and an end to human beings—brothers and sisters—trying to survive each night in card board boxes. I hope that everyone who reads this will consider how they can join us in sharing their time, talents and treasures and making a bit of heaven present here on earth.”

Andy Bales

Revised 4/24/07