West Long Beach residents contest winter homeless shelter at Silverado Park; community meeting to be held next week

Protest signs are taped to the newly erected frencing surrounding the Silverado Park Gym on Feb. 14, 2023. The gym in the park is planned to be used as a winter shelter for people experiencing homelessness despite local opposition. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

West Long Beach residents showed up to Long Beach’s City Council meeting Tuesday night to voice their protest about the new homeless winter shelter being planned at Silverado Park. 

Mayor Rex Richardson announced plans earlier this month for the 84-bed winter shelter to operate inside Silverado Park’s gymnasium through the end of March. It’s one of many steps the city has taken in response to the local state of emergency regarding the homelessness crisis, which the city council declared on Jan. 10. 

Residents claimed they were not informed of these plans and insisted the city find another location that does not take away park space from an already underserved area. 

“There’s other places that need to be considered other than a public park that’s used by children every single day,” said west Long Beach resident Kalisha Jackson. “How does the city of Long Beach think that a homeless shelter directly across from a K-8 school is a good idea? It’s not fair to the kids or the entire community.”

An aerial view of the playground and Gym at Silverado Park which recently had a gate erected around it for a planned winter shelter for people experiencing homelessness on Feb. 14, 2023. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

Jackson pointed out that the John Muir Elementary School basketball team that uses the gym every day for practice will have to find a new location. 

Long Beach resident Tony Bell started a Change.org petition challenging the establishment of the winter shelter at Silverado Park. The petition began on Feb. 11 with the goal of obtaining at least 1,000 signatures. The petition has received 769 signatures as of Feb. 16. 

Mayor Rex Richardson said that the City Council could not spend “too much time” addressing community concerns at the meeting since it was not on the agenda to be discussed. 

“Right now we’re in a state of emergency as a city, and we’re all doing our part … It seems like every year we declare an emergency and place a winter shelter [somewhere],” Richardson said. “I think we have to move away from that and think about a permanent location and that’s not easy, it takes time but I want you to know we’re working on a solution.”

Residents pointed out that West Long Beach already suffers from poor air quality due to the concentration of ports, industrial facilities, freeways, oil refineries and freight corridors in the westside. 

Long Beach’s 2022-23 Strategic Plan for Parks, Recreation and Marine lays out the need for more park equity in West Long Beach, which has had “the needs of the port and industry prioritized over community needs.” This has caused a life expectancy of five years lower than the rest of the city on average, according to the plan. 

Protest signs are taped to the newly erected frencing surrounding the Silverado Park Gym on Feb. 14, 2023. The gym in the park is planned to be used as a winter shelter for people experiencing homelessness despite local opposition. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

“We aim to address the disparities between the different parts of Long Beach, most notably the limited access to public parks and nature in North, West, and Central Long Beach,” the Strategic Plan states. 

The Silverado Park gymnasium holds frequent community events for teens, children and seniors in the area, which residents said improve the quality of life in the area. 

“My concern is one of green space equity, insufficient community engagement and in my opinion, shortsighted planning,” said west Long Beach resident David Garcia. “There are four green spaces on the west side. Silverado is the biggest and most accessible … Why encroach on a resource that already serves an undeniably underserved community? Taking from those who have some to give to those who have none is not equitable.”

Councilmember Robert Uranga, whose district Silverado Park resides in, invited the public to a community meeting at the park on Feb. 23 at 6:30 p.m. so the city can “work out solutions” with residents. 

“Hearing from the public, I can hear that there’s a number of inaccuracies and discrepancies,” Uranga said. “As always communication is key to understanding and apparently the City did not do enough with its constituents for this program.”

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