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For decades, Union Rescue Mission President and CEO Andy Bales has lived the values he preaches, caring for the most vulnerable among us and inspiring hope in the darkest places. He has also been a relentless gadfly in L.A.’s homelessness debate, a lone voice advocating recovery and community-based services amid the din of harm-reduction mantras and corrupt development rackets.

After 20 years leading URM, the next six months will be his last among the people of Skid Row. Next year, he will return to his home state of Iowa to be closer to his family.

The reverend’s lifelong mission began, in a way, with a sandwich: A Des Moines school teacher moonlighting as a weekend parking attendant, Bales remembered the night a homeless man rapped on his window and asked for his supper. Bales thought about the long hours ahead and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but I need my sandwich. I looked and his face drooped with disappointment, and he disappeared into the cold darkness. And it was like a hammer hit me.”

He had been preaching to his classes that feeding a hungry person is like feeding God. Embarrassed “because of how badly I’d failed,” Bales prayed for a second chance. A few weeks later, he found the man on the street and fed him dinner. A few weeks after that, someone suggested he apply for a job at a nearby rescue mission.