At its meeting Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council approved two allocations of public funds to help area homeless– a $3.4 million grant for building the city’s first year-round shelter and $1.55 million in Measure H funds for homeless rapid-rehousing and prevention services.
ABC Project
The council authorized the city manager to accept a grant from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) for $3.4 million earmarked to build Long Beach’s first municipal year-round homeless shelter.
At a press conference earlier this year, the City had announced its purchase of property at 6841-6845 Atlantic Ave., a site known as Atlantic Farms, for developing a 125-bed shelter called the Atlantic Avenue Bridge Community (ABC) project.
Ninth-District Councilmember Rex Richardson, who spearheaded ABC, said at the Jan. 28 press conference that the project would address the city’s homeless crisis head-on.
“This is a game-changing opportunity to create a best-in-class campus that connects comprehensive health and wellness with economic development, housing opportunities and new amenities for the whole community,” Richardson said.
[See similar story: City officials announce acquisition of property on Atlantic Avenue for future homeless-services campus]
The City’s design of the campus–– scheduled to open in June 2020–– allows sleeping quarters for single adults and couples, overnight stays for families, pet accommodations, temporary storage, transportation to other community services, shower facilities, and programs such as life skills, job training, benefits advocacy and comprehensive case management.
The council approved purchasing the 2.285-acre site on Feb. 5 for $9.6 million with an $8-million grant for homeless emergency services from the California Housing Agency’s Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC), according to the staff report. The City funded the remaining $1.6 million through sale of other property.
The $3.4 million that the council approved Dec. 17 will go to Williams Scotsman, Inc., a company that builds modules, to create modular housing-units for the ABC Project, making it a village-style homeless-services campus.
However, the funds will not cover the full amount of the project, according to Councilmember Al Austin in his Dec. 16 newsletter.
“The grant will partially fund the construction of the facility,” Austin said. “Ongoing funding for operations for this facility are currently being negotiated with the County of Los Angeles using Measure H Intermediate Housing Strategy Funding with the strong expectation of the County reimbursing the City $45 per bed per individual housed each day.”
In the meantime, the City’s annual winter shelter opened its doors at 1718 Hayes Ave. on the west side of Long Beach on Dec. 6, providing overnight accommodations through the end of March 2020.
Rapid rehousing
The council also approved at its Dec. 17 meeting distributing anticipated 2020 Measure H sales-tax funds for homeless initiatives to two local nonprofit organizations that provide rapid-rehousing and homelessness-prevention services.
Over the last fiscal year, from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019, the City had allocated $1.1 million in Measure H funds to Interval House, which offers crisis shelters and centers for victims of domestic violence, and Lutheran Social Services of Southern California (LSSSC), which provides emergency, social and housing services.
The council agreed Tuesday to continue funding those organizations with an anticipated $1.55 million in 2020 Measure H funding. The City will allocate $650,000 of those funds to Interval House for rapid rehousing and $500,000 for homelessness prevention, and award LSSSC $400,000 for rapid-rehousing services through the end of June 2020.
According to Long Beach Director of Health and Human Services Kelly Colopy in a June 4 press release, LAHSA’s 2019 homeless count identified 1,894 homeless individuals in Long Beach as of January 2019, a 2% increase over its 2017 count.
“Addressing the issue of homelessness continues to be a leading priority for the City,” Colopy said. “Long Beach has taken a multipronged approach, working across departments to provide wrap-around services for people experiencing homelessness as well as vulnerable populations.”
Hi should homeowners be concern about safety since im sure this will bring more homeless into our community