Many West Long Beach residents are unaware of the inner workings at the Century Villages at Cabrillo—the 27-acre campus built as a steward to lead people out of homelessness and into healthy, stable lives. Those who are aware are often wary about their neighbors.
Newly appointed Executive Director Kimberly Wee wants to change that. Wee began her tenure as executive director of the Villages on Monday, Aug. 21, in a role she said she’s been training to do for over 20 years.
The Villages at Cabrillo have been providing permanent and interim housing for vulnerable populations since 1997, mainly focusing on veterans and families as well as those experiencing mental health issues and people recovering from substance abuse issues and sexual trauma.
Nearly 1,800 residents called the dozen apartments and shelters at the Villages home in 2022, over 600 of whom were veterans. With the help of 12 service partners, the Villages also has a health clinic and connects its residents with job training programs, food assistance, job placement, advocacy, education, skills-training and more.
Wee began working with Century Housing, the backbone organization of the Villages at Cabrillo, in 2011. She was part of the original team, working at a partner agency, that opened the Villages in West Long Beach back when it housed only 200 residents.
“Being at the ground level was exciting and that’s what’s kept me there all these years,” Wee said.
Wee is also co-chair for the Long Beach Continuum of Care Board and a member of the End Abuse Long Beach Board.
Though the Villages have experienced rapid growth, Wee said they still need support to keep going, and connecting to the surrounding community is part of that mission.
“I want to bring in more services and more community members so it’s not such an isolated 27-acre of Long Beach that’s not really part of Long Beach,” Wee said, adding that residents can be part of the solution to homelessness. “We have a lot of good support right now with our mayor and local health department. We want to expand to business owners and residents.”
Wee said one of her favorite experiences is bringing residents to the Villages and seeing their shock that “it’s a nice community and a dignified place for people to rebuild their lives.”
In 2022, 3,447 people were identified as homeless in Long Beach, and there was a 20% increase in veterans becoming homeless.
“Come visit the Villages, come volunteer, you need to see where that path is to get people off the streets,” Wee said.
While Long Beach has been struggling to balance ensuring public safety and providing homelessness services during the years-long rise of people becoming homeless in the city, the Villages provide a valuable framework for handling both.
Wee said along with housing, providing services and support to people is “number one” for successful outreach. As Vice President of Residential Services for Century Villages, she has intimate knowledge of what it takes to maintain these services, including the ability to leverage support from outside sources.
“I want to bring in more services and more community members so it’s not such an isolated 27-acre of Long Beach that’s not really part of Long Beach.”
Kimberly Wee, Executive Director of Century Villages at Cabrillo
Wee will continue in her role as Vice President of Residential Services, leading the 20-person team—soon to add another six—of case managers, clinical staff to oversee services at multiple locations. She said most of her job will be handling grant applications, while her day-to-day operations will focus on the Villages at Cabrillo.
One of Wee’s immediate goals is to provide more mental health and substance abuse services on campus. She said it’s difficult for residents at the Villages to access city resources, many of which are concentrated in Downtown Long Beach
The Villages was able to hire a behavioral health specialist to respond to calls of mental health crises for the next three years thanks to a donation from a community member, something Wee said is typically “unheard of.” She emphasized that they still require “a lot more” help for mental health services.
According to the Villages 2022 Social Impact Report, 46% of residents living at the Villages entered emergency interim housing due to mental health conditions. 68% of residents reported having either a mental or physical health issue.
Wee said someday they would like to have a mental health clinic, something she said wasn’t considered a necessity 15 or 20 years ago.
According to the 2022 Point in Time Count, 34.7% of people experiencing homelessness in Long Beach had a “severe mental illness.”
In 2022, the Villages received $34.2 million in funding “to underwrite services” and provide housing to nearly 1,8000 residents.
The Villages will open another 90 housing units for veterans at the end of the year.
“We’ve had a lot more contact with the mayor’s office, [Rex] Richardson has been really good at making sure Long Beach doesn’t forget what they already have,” Wee said. “We’ve been here 25 years and we’ve been doing okay, but we still need support to keep going.”
This article was updated on Aug. 25 to correct how long Century Housing and The Villages have been established. The Signal Tribune regrets this error.
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