It’s been almost a month since the Long Beach City Council declared a city-wide state of emergency due to the rising numbers of people becoming and suffering from homelessness.
The state of emergency streamlines the City’s ability to approve zoning changes, allocate funds, approve affordable housing projects, hire additional staff and establish shelters and other resources. All city workers are classified as Disaster Service Workers, meaning their responsibilities are able to be reassigned in order to meet the demands of reducing homelessness.
Long Beach City Council must vote to extend the state of emergency every two weeks, when city staff will provide a report on progress.
The City Council declared a state of emergency on Jan. 10. Mayor Rex Richardson has given a small number of updates on actions the city has taken and is planning on taking to address the issue.
So far, city staff has not announced a budget or projected expenses on the homelessness response efforts.
Latest Announcements
Since the declaration was passed, the city has implemented an Emergency Command Center headed by the Department of Health and Public Works Department and staffed by over 100 city employees.
Long Beach has also started the Mayor’s homelessness fund and established the Mobile Access Center, a mobile homelessness outreach program that travels around the downtown area and reduces barriers to a variety of services.
On Jan. 27, California State Senator Lena Gonzalez announced a $4 million award to Long Beach’s Multi-Service Center (MSC), a hub located in District 7 that provides case management, a medical clinic, employment assistance, mental health support and more. The funds will be used to complete infrastructure improvements and to support the services the MSC offers.
In January, the MSC saw a total of 3,388 visits, 363 of which were first-time visitors, according to a report from the Homeless Services Advisory Committee (HSAC) on Feb. 1. The Center received 248 requests for outreach and conducted 136 points of outreach.
On Feb. 2, the Long Beach Utilities Commission voted to create a Recreational Vehicle sewer dumping station for those living in RVs. The project is expected to cost less than $200,000 and will be funded by Long Beach Water and Sewage funds.
The site will be located at 32nd Street and St. Louis Avenue and individuals will have to obtain a voucher or another form of advanced permission in order to access the site, according to staff reports.
The lot may not be used for overnight parking and will be used strictly as a sanitation dumping and water refilling station. The proposed hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and will be staffed by one attendant and one security guard.
The City expects to add portable showers within the first six months of operation. There is no set date for when the RV station will be open, as Long Beach Utilities will have to construct the sanitation dump stations and sewer connections.
Plans in Motion
Long Beach has announced a list of actions the City hopes to take in the coming weeks and months to create more affordable housing, shelters and more accessible resources for the homeless population.
According to the HSAC, Long Beach is searching for a site to establish an additional winter shelter with at least 80 beds. The goal is to announce the shelter site within the next week, as well as an additional safe parking site.
In January, there were a total of 410 residents housed in shelters, safe parking sites and motels using housing vouchers, according to staff reports. This means only around 20% of the 2,034 homeless residents identified in the 2022 Homeless Count have been placed into temporary housing.
The 2023 Homeless Count was conducted on Jan. 26, and the results are expected to be shared in the late spring or early summer.
As of Jan. 29, only 65% of the issued emergency housing vouchers have been utilized, according to staff reports. The City is looking to incentivize landlords to accept housing vouchers in order to move more people into affordable housing.
The Mobile Access Center is expected to increase operations from three to five days a week in the coming months. At a Jan. 24 City Council meeting, District 9 council member Joni Ricks-Oddie asked how the City is choosing where to send the MAC.
Colopy said that the downtown area has been identified as a “hot spot” for homelessness, but that council members can report their own district’s “hot spots” and the MAC will be sent out to those locations.
Ricks-Oddie also asked the council to address the disproportionate rate of Black individuals who escape and then fall back into homelessness. She said the percentage of Black people who fall back into homelessness is at 60%, while that number is at 20% for white people and 10% for the general population.
Colopy said that there is a Black Equity Health Collaborative looking into why this is happening and possible solutions.
In hopes of creating more temporary and permanent affordable housing, City Manager Tom Modica said they are looking into partnerships with Long Beach Harbor, Water and Transit, local colleges, LA Metro, Los Angeles County and Gateway Cities Council of Government.
“The mayor has been talking to educators, they have a ton of land and resources and maybe they’ll be partners in housing solutions,” Modica said. “We’re going to be issuing formal letters of requests and they will have dollar amounts.”
The next update on the state of emergency will be issued on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 11 a.m. Residents can stream the update on LBTV.com or the City’s Youtube channel.
