How can Long Beach incentivize the creation of senior housing? What projects are underway? Are there funds to build more?
These are the questions that Long Beach City Council members want answers to, and Long Beach City Manager Tom Modica and the Department of Development Services must answer them within the next 60 days.
“As our Long Beach population ages, it’s increasingly more and more important for us as a city to think proactively about the needs of our senior community,” Councilmember Suzie Price said. “Housing security and availability is a major issue for our senior population in Long Beach.”
She noted that it can be difficult to entice developers into building senior housing because “a lot of times the financials just don’t make sense.”
In Long Beach, 11% of residents are 65 or older, and 10% experience at least one disability, according to the City’s most recent Housing Element—a state-mandated report that lays out the city’s housing needs, goals and strategies.
Long Beach’s annual Point-in-Time Homeless Count, which was released earlier this year, showed that 938 (44%) of the city’s homeless population is over the age of 55.
“We can’t take our eye off the ball,” Vice Mayor Rex Richardson said.
Long Beach’s Housing Authority website lists 29 different privately-owned, affordable housing complexes with units built specifically for seniors. These include the Carmelitos Public Housing Project, the Senior Arts Colony, the Renaissance Terrace and the Ramona Park Senior Apartments.
The development of Long Beach Senior Housing, a 67-unit affordable housing complex on Pacific Coast Highway, is currently underway.
During public comment, resident Senay Kenfe said that developers are “salivating” over buildings with affordability covenants that are about to expire—”they look for buildings like that to buy them and kick out all the old people […] if you really want to house seniors, we have to do it forever, not just for a slight amount of time.”
The 2021-2029 Housing Element states, “Long Beach has experienced rapid gentrification. Other underserved populations include low-income households, communities of color, immigrants, seniors, and students, who are more likely to be displaced when their units are redeveloped and leased at market rates.”
The plan includes goals specific to senior housing, like utilizing density bonus incentive programs—which give developers funds or discounts in exchange for increasing the number of units they develop—and maintaining mobile home parks.
Councilmember Cindy Allen made a friendly amendment to look at how the city might consolidate its senior housing application after receiving complaints from residents who have to apply to each building individually. She also suggested the inclusion of the Senior Citizen Advisory Commission, a group of residents tasked with advising the council on senior issues.
Councilmember Mary Zendejas requested that the motion include people with disabilities as well—who “have a lot of the same issues that seniors do.” She said that, although she was able to find affordable housing in the past, she could not access some places because they didn’t have elevators for her wheelchair.
“Many of our seniors are differently abled, but if they do have a specific disability, they have an additional hurdle in affordability that we don’t think about,” Price said as she accepted all three amendments.
The report will come back to the council within 60 days.
