Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. So we're going to go ahead and go right into the study session. Okay. Thank you. So we're going to go ahead and start our our study session. And I'm going to make a few comments just to open us up before we go ahead and turn this over to our city staff to begin the presentation . And for those who are here, the way this will work is like all special study sessions of the council, like the one we've have today. Our staff is going to begin by making a presentation. I know today's presentation is fairly lengthy and so we're going to go and get through that presentation because it's important information that we get through and that the council here, then after the presentation, the Council will have the ability to make to ask questions, make comments, and then after that we will have public comment on only issues related to the study session. So the public comment on issues around homelessness and that topic. And then after that, we will conclude the study session and then begin the meeting of the City Council. Okay. Thank you. And so let me just begin by just saying, if you if you just general comments, I think there's no question that this the issue of homelessness is an issue that a lot of people have been talking about, not just here in Long Beach, but across the state and across the country. And it's been a part of our conversation for for a long time. We all know that right now the state of California and particularly urban cities like San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, Fresno , Los Angeles, you name the city, and they are all experiencing challenges as well as opportunities to do work around this issue of homelessness. We know that there is a growing and transient homeless population across the county and across the region. That's been noted, I think, across all of our media. I think we also see it when you talk to folks in our social service agencies. And so that's part of the conversation tonight. In addition, I want to know what you're going to hear tonight, that Long Beach has also been a leader in many areas of building supportive housing for the homeless, particularly around veterans, and particularly about working with a lot of our local agencies in trying to access mental health care and mental health services for many of our homeless. But we do know that there are changes, the population moves, there are certain neighborhoods that more than others, I think, feel the impact and are beginning to react to that impact and inform the council and the city of that challenge for them. And so hopefully tonight is an inclusive conversation that can engage the community. I want to say that tonight is not somehow the only night that we're going to discuss this issue. It's a study session for the council. But there have been already numerous conversations that council members have hosted in their own communities. These conversations happen all the time at our agencies, and I know that our Homeless Service Advisory Commission, which I know the members are here tonight as well, they have this conversation consistently about putting together a plan for the future. I'll also say that while we know that the last homeless count that that was completed back in January 2015 showed a decrease in homelessness. The next count, as we know, is this January at the beginning of the year. And so that will give us some clear data. And a lot of the folks that are here will be involved in that count as to where the city actually is when it comes to this this issue. The Council in the past has adopted a community strategy around homelessness, particularly back in 2010, before most of us were in office on this council. And you also may remember that there was years ago, a little over ten years ago now, I believe the city began an effort called the ten year plan to Eliminate or reduce homelessness. This was an effort that began in the city that was not just done in Long Beach, but was actually a national initiative, which I know we'll hear some about tonight. And so I think the reason why tonight's important and what I'm hoping that we discuss is not just what has been successful, but what has not been successful. What have we done where the city has fallen short? What can we do better? I'd love to hear from you. What you think we can do better? And then also looking, moving forward for innovative solutions. What are some of the best ideas that are happening across the country and across the world to address this issue? I also am very thankful to the Homeless Services Advisory Commission and all the community advocates and leaders on this issue that I've been working on this week after week for a very long time, because it's a it's a very important issue, and it's important also for the entire city to be involved. This conversation, not just the advocates and the providers, but also our neighborhood groups, our business community, and certainly the leadership of the city of the city council. Before we we I passed this on also just wanted to just conclude just by saying that as we have this discussion tonight, I know that that this is many folks view this as a challenge. And it is it's a it's a it's a challenge that we have to face as a community. But I remind us that every single homeless person has a name. All of them, at one point in their life had dreams about what would happen in their future. They all have parents. They all want to have a better life. And they're all individual people. And so I know it's a lot of us, myself included, we oftentimes talk about the homeless as a as a population. This is a population that is diverse. It's a population that has also has families and youth and and all sorts of people and veterans as a part of it. And so it's I think it's really important that we remember that we are talking about human beings and that this is a community discussion that at its core should be about helping people in our community . And so with that, I want to thank you for being here tonight. And I want to turn this over to our city staff. Mr. WEST.
Speaker 6: Mr. Mayor, council members, thank you very much for.
Speaker 7: Initiating this study session on homelessness. As a city manager, I would like to.
Speaker 6: Echo the comments that the mayor made.
Speaker 7: Truly, the issue of homelessness is one of the most significant issues facing all large cities across America. We in the city of Long Beach are blessed to be one of the only to be one of only three cities in the state of California.
Speaker 6: That have their own health departments. Most cities in California are served by the county.
Speaker 7: We're especially blessed to have a division devoted strictly to homelessness.
Speaker 6: And this is a division in our health department that works very, very closely with our Parks Recreation Department, our public works team, our police department, and our fire departments. We also are especially blessed to have our own Homeless Services Advisory Commission. That gives us a lot of policy direction that will move forward.
Speaker 7: So I'm going to introduce the people leading us tonight is going to be our director of Human Services, Kelly Collopy.
Speaker 6: Along with Theresa Chandler, our homeless services coordinator. So I'm going to turn this over to Kelly for the presentation. Kelly.
Speaker 8: Thank you. Good evening, honorable mayor. Council members and our many community members here to participate in this homeless study session. Theresa Chandler, our homeless services officer who many of you met before, and I will kick off with this presentation. First, I'd like to acknowledge that there is frustration among almost everyone regarding homeless concerns in Long Beach. Some feel the city is not doing enough. They see people on the streets with their belongings and they sometimes feel unsafe. Some are trying to help, but they don't know how. Some are providing resources directly to homeless individuals and are being asked not to. We hear that some are taking on their solution solutions of their own. And some of these solutions are neither kind nor are they effective. We are in a fragile time and the need to make sure we act from humanity. Our hope through this presentation and ensuing conversations tonight is that you all understand what is currently underway in the city. The resources provided with the city can and cannot do regarding persons experiencing homelessness. What you can do and our future planning efforts. Teresa will start with providing an overview of what the city and its partners are doing to outreach, respond to and how individuals and families.
Speaker 1: We asked the Long Beach community what we can do to address homelessness. And they answered. Thinking outside of the box. Working together. Educating and motivating the community as a whole. We must care for each other. Address. Mental health and substance abuse. Provide affordable housing. And I'll be a part of the solution. In order to embrace all of these suggestions, we need to know who the homeless are in our community. People who are experiencing homelessness are individuals, families with children, persons with disabilities, veterans, domestic violence survivors, unaccompanied youth, seniors. They are grandparents. They are parents. They are brothers. They are sisters, their sons and their daughters. Every person has a unique set of circumstances and a life story which makes the topic of homelessness a complicated one at best. The city of Long Beach has a robust system of care to address the needs of this diverse population. As you can see from this graphic, our continuum of care has many partners bringing together the core services needed by our population experiencing homelessness. The city's Department of Health and Human Services is the backbone to these efforts in Long Beach. Applying each year to the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, to resource these services. The Long Beach Continuum of Care is an integrated and coordinated system that provides various services, including street outreach, intake and assessment, emergency shelter, transitional housing, permanent housing and supportive services. I will go further into the definition of these later in the presentation, but each household has a unique set of needs and the system is designed to identify the appropriate services for each household. This collaborative group of service providers has the ability to meet those needs, in part to being designated a unified funding agency by HUD in 2014. Given only to the highest quality continuum, continuum of care in the country. Long Beach is one of four U.S. phase out of 400 continuum nationwide. This status allows the flexibility to address the unique needs of our community. We do this by using best practice models that our client centered increase access to housing and demonstrate positive, measurable impacts. This Ufa status also allows us to seamlessly coordinate services. We use data to evaluate how well we are accomplishing our objectives and goals, which in turn allows us to better understand who we are serving. Furthermore, we are able to develop policy and procedures that inform decision making based on real time data. The Multi-Service Center, located at 1301 West 12th Street, is an innovative best practice model and has been copied by other communities. The Multi-Service Center serves as the one stop shop for homeless services citywide. Over a dozen of our partner agencies operate at the Mercy, working together to holistically address the needs of those accessing the center. Thanks to $2 million in support from Los Angeles County Supervisor Donna Navy, the MSI was completely remodeled two years ago and is a beautiful, welcoming location for people to receive services. We also thank the port for their ongoing support and we encourage others to come out and visit the center. The MSI provides a range of services from basic needs such as meals, meal, transportation, shower facilities to assessments of overall needs, to understanding the current living situation of each person that walks in the door and getting getting them on a housing plan that ultimately leads to a long term housing solution. Now I'd like to take a moment to review this list of active and engaged community partners who are part of this system of care. I would like to ask our partners who are present today to please raise their hands. I also want to acknowledge our continued care board members and our our Homeless Services Advisory Commission so all of you can raise your hands. And I can't continue with the presentation without without saying thank you and giving you a warm hand. We would not be where we are today without those that advocated for our division in our department historically and and today as we go forward. So thank you for your service and dedication. A key partner in our success in providing permanent housing is the Housing Authority, which also falls under the umbrella of the Health and Human Services Department. The housing authorities impact on homelessness is in, which is substantial. They set aside 701 vast vouchers for veterans, which is like Section eight for veterans, 98 housing choice vouchers, also Section eight, specifically for people experiencing homelessness and provide rental assistance for 201 people who need a combination of housing and services to live independently. However, the Housing Authority is faced with challenges that are out of their control. 486 people with vouchers are actively searching for an apartment and cannot find a place to live at this moment. Long Beach has a 2% vacancy rate making finding a home very competitive as it takes an average of six months to secure a unit. Another one of our many partners is a Long Beach Police Department who supports the city's outreach team in locating and engaging people. The Quality of Life Unit is a best practice model. The unit partners with a department of mental health clinician to connect people to services and housing. I'd like to take a moment to talk about Fred. Fred, who had been homeless for more than 15 years and living on the streets of Long Beach. He was very well known to our outreach and quality of life and West Division officers and had always refused any services or assistance. City staff and the police department never gave up on Fred and kept up their encouragement and visits until he decided to change his life and accept help. It took 11 long months to find a permanent home for Fred. They were filled with long applications, background checks, multiple emergency housing placements and several rejections from landlords. But Fred's determination paid off, and he signed his first lease in more than 15 years this past June. Fred will tell you that he did not make this commitment to change alone. It was when other people also made that commitment to him that his odds really improved. Fred Story is one of many successful housing placements here in Long Beach. Outreach and engagement are an essential part in building a relationship with people on the street. This can be a lengthy process and take multiple contacts. The city has currently only two full time employees to respond to more than 100 requests for outreach per month, which does not include existing efforts for identified hot spots for areas throughout the city such as riverbeds, parks, beaches and wetlands. Our outreach team works daily to connect and engage people who are living without a home. They visit under bridges, along trailheads, on street corners and alleys, in parks, along the freeways and other locations where people take shelter in Long Beach. They are reaching many of the places that that others often overlook or ignore. They work closely with our City Partners Park Rex and Marine Public Works, the police department and the fire department to bring quality services to people who are homeless. Their level of humanity and compassion for for everyone they meet is completely unmatched. Along with the increased volume of calls to the health department, other city departments are also seeing an uptick, seeing an uptick in requests, which in turn is increasing the pressure on the city wide response system. For example, the health department will initially do outreach and engagement to a hotspot or a particular encampment. The area can require multiple visits by outreach and police to to truly evaluate, evaluate what's happening with the people staying there. We often visit a site multiple times to engage. If the area needs to be cleaned of debris and unattended belongings. The city is legally required to post a notice of the cleanup for up to three days. The notice states that the area is to be cleaned and that any belongings left will be removed from the area by a specific date on the day of the cleanup. Street outreach returns to reengage any people at the site to offer transportation, emergency housing, and any linkages to services that may be requested. Once an area has been cleaned, any items identified as personal belongings are then collected and stored up to 90 days. Another notice is posted with information on how to retrieve the items from the storage. Cleanups can cost anywhere from $1000 to $50000, just depending on the size of the effort. And there are multiple large scale cleanups each year. Resources go very quickly. The city is often asked to move people or to clean up homeless encampments more quickly than the regulations allow. We adhere very tightly to the regulations because other cities. Other cities who have not have been subject to lawsuits leading to court oversight or requirement that remove local control of the situation. As we have learned from watching surrounding communities, we do not take these ordinances or rules lightly in an effort to avoid potential lawsuits. The demand on the continuum of care system is substantial. The Multi-Service Center provides services for an average of 1100 individuals and families per month in 2016 for a total of 13,829 client contacts. The Street Outreach Team receives approximately 100 requests for outreach each month, and there was a rise in the requests for coordination to address homeless homelessness among city departments, county departments, nonprofit partners and faith based agencies.
Speaker 8: The budget for the city's homeless services is approximately $10.9 million this year. These funds come from a number of different sources. HUD is the primary funding source at $7.5 million for the continuum of care grant. However, the city has been successful in leveraging other funding sources, such as the Community Development BLOCK, grant emergency Solutions, grant county and City Funds, private foundations and donations to the Mayor's Fund to support the continuum of care system. The Homeless Veterans Initiative, a grant funded by the Los Angeles County Supervisor Duncan Harvey, has been an important funding source and has been instrumental in ending veteran homelessness in our city. Initially a three year project, the grant was renewed for five years as a result of the extraordinary outcomes in the last year alone. These funds have been critical in helping 300 veterans find a permanent home. The Mayor's Fund for Homeless has also been important in providing us flexibility to achieve our results. This fund, made up of community donations, supports programs that help fill the gaps in the service system. These funds have assisted with job training and placement services, childcare for families, medical screenings and move in assistance. This year, the funds are being used for family reunification. The city appropriated one time funds of $380,000 from the general fund this year and $500,000 in funding to support rapid response across the city. The age funding to $250,000 of that will go to the fire department to implement a medically staffed rapid response vehicle. The other $250,000 will go to the police department to support response efforts with our other city partners. The use of police resources will be coordinated by the Health Department in conjunction with the $380,000 for health, parks and Recreation and public works to provide improved response to calls for assistance in the community, including more outreach and cleanup response capacity. These resources are specific to outreach response as the demand is significant. When looking at our budget overall. Please note that a majority of our funding goes to direct services for the continuum of care funding. Over 85% of the funds are for housing and supportive services. The remaining amounts support system wide administration planning and data collection. The slide shows the continuum of care program and how those resources are allocated. The bulk of our funding, $3.6 million annually goes to permanent housing options support services, which include outreach, housing, location, case management, house retention, housing retention, health care, employment training, linkage to income supports, mental health settings, abuse treatment and child care receives about $1.3 million. Transitional housing programs, which support people and families as they transition to permanent housing, receives another 1.1 million and $780,000, goes to rapid rehousing programs, which provide short term rental assistance to the newly homeless. The remaining $600,000 supports compliance and planning activities, data collection and program evaluation combined.
Speaker 1: There are a range of housing options available for people in Long Beach. We have 257 year round emergency shelter beds. People tend to stay no longer than 90 days in a short term lodging. The 337 transitional housing beds are designed to support people as they move toward permanent housing. The maximum stay is two years. Rapid rehousing provides housing and short term rental assistance that assist people to quickly access housing. This also ends at two years. The 1452 permanent housing beds provide long term housing for homeless individuals and families who have a disability. Support services are provided to help people remain in their homes. Currently in Long Beach, 93% of the permanent housing and 96% of our rapid rehousing is occupied. Our affordable housing partners in Long Beach have taken on the challenge of creating permanent housing to mean to meet the need in our community.
Speaker 0: I'm sorry, can you go back in that? Can you just repeat those numbers later and see them on that?
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 0: On what the percentage was. Again, just.
Speaker 1: 93% of our permanent housing and 96% of our rapid rehousing is occupied.
Speaker 0: Thank you.
Speaker 1: So our affordable housing partners in Long Beach have taken on the challenge of creating permanent housing to meet the need in our community. One of these partners is century villages at Cabrillo, a 27 acre campus community committed to breaking the cycle of homelessness. There are 20 service providers located on site 572 affordable homes, over 1000 residents on any given night, and over 2000 people served per year. The Housing Authority has been instrumental in partnering with developers to create affordable housing with a preference for previously homeless households. Examples include Long Beach and 21st Street with 40 units and the Palace Hotel 13 units. There are also some that are that are in the development stage, including anchor place that will have 120 units at the Villages at Cabrillo. And this is currently under construction. And and the Beacon, which is another 106 units, which is scheduled to begin in early 2017. Homeless impacts go beyond the city boundaries, making regional coordination critical to addressing the issue. These regional partnerships assist us in accessing resources in Long Beach, as well as to connect people who are not from Long Beach to resources in their community. This means that no one is getting turned away if they are seeking services, but they are connected to the appropriate resources across the region. These partnerships allow us to build a more effective system throughout southern Los Angeles County. In addition, L.A. County has developed 52 comprehensive initiatives to actively address homelessness. They are working to address how these can be resourced, and Long Beach City staff and partners are active participants in the conversations. Other successful regional partners include the Council of Governments through its Gateway Cities Cities Initiative. The Coordinated Entry System and the Homeless Family Solution System. The Gateway Cities Initiative is divided into four planning areas across the region. Through this effort, staff connect homeless households to appropriate regional county resources and housing in Lakewood, Signal, Hill, Hawaiian Gardens and Avalon. Long Beach is helping increase the capacity of those cities to help them address the needs of their homeless population. The Coordinated Entry System and the Homeless Families Solutions system provide a seamless system of care, addressing the needs of homeless individuals and families by supporting their ability to access services and connect to support systems in their communities. There is also a winter shelter in Long Beach. This is funded annually through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority from from December 1st through March 15th. This program provides shelter services and linkages to housing through the inclement weather season. There are about 200 beds during that winter's shelter season. All of these resources and coordinated efforts have led to an overall reduction in homelessness. Based on the last two point in time counts. The point in time count as a count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single night in January. HUD requires that continuum of care conduct this count every two years. Our next count is scheduled to take place on Thursday, January 26th, 2017. We rely heavily on approximately 300 volunteers to take part in this important event. Based on increased calls for outreach, response and trends seen in neighboring communities, we do not anticipate seeing a decrease in our next count. Our most notable reduction has been among veteran homelessness. The city of Long Beach has a no wrong door approach to find and house our homeless veterans regardless of housing, health or discharge status. Partners, including the Long Beach VA Medical Center, the Health Department, US Vets, Mental Health America and 1736 Family Crisis Center work very closely to provide a system of care to veterans who are homeless and seeking services. We were able to house 355 veterans reaching functional zero, which means any homeless veteran who is seeking housing can be housed. The team provides emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, access to housing vouchers. Prevention funds. Deposit and rental assistance and case management. We identify new homeless veterans during daily outreach visits. We know who they are and we are working to house them. It's an ongoing process, but for any Long Beach veteran who becomes homeless, there are resources and housing available.
Speaker 0: Let me actually just pause right there for a second. So I just want to just note that I don't want to let that moment pass either. I think it's really, really incredible to see the work that's happened around housing veterans who have become homeless. And we I know we, along with a lot of our partners, announced this initiative probably maybe a year and a half ago or so. And it was a part of a national initiative that actually the first lady kind of took on through the White House. And working with HUD, working with the villages, working with U.S. vets, working with the Veterans Administration Hospital and all of our partners. And just miracle work has happened around this work of getting every single veteran that is looking for housing an actual place to live. And so I just want to if we can all just give to all of our partners that were involved, a just huge round of applause for their work and in doing that. As we all know, that that doesn't mean that veterans still don't fall into homelessness or there still isn't a challenge there because it's still the case . But we know that there has been a huge amount of of energy that has gone in and out. I will tell you that our health department team and Kelly, they have heard consistently from from us on this issue, and they have done just amazing work in leading this initiative. And so I just wanted to thank all of you before you moved on on that, because it is a huge accomplishment. What you guys have done there. Thank you. Continue.
Speaker 8: Thank you, Mayor. So the ten year plan. And first, I'd like to acknowledge we have our co-chairs of the ten year plan in the audience. So, Mike Murray, could you please stand? See here. There you are. And Steve Peck from U.S.. Thank you. So in 2008, a large collaborative effort of over 200 community stakeholders made up of service providers, businesses, faith based and faith based partners developed a ten year plan to prevent and end homeless in the city. A lot of work went into this report. It included a large number of recommendations for the city to take on a large a lot of innovative ideas and different things to try. This was presented to City Council, but at that time it was not adopted. Endorsements there. Has it been funded? So there has been a plan and it's been a sort of a guiding a guiding conversation. But throughout this time, there has not been a lot of additional resources put toward a number of those recommendations. Who else was in it? Who else participated in that planning processes in the room? Okay. Thank you. However, progress has been made. Well, originally so it was initiated in 2005 by Mayor O'Neill. And what came out of it was five key community strategies that were adopted by the City Council in 2009. The strategies were specifically focused on housing, economic stability, supportive services, community involvement and outcomes in evaluation. Through these strategies, the city steadily reduced the number of people experiencing homelessness throughout the city and effectively targeted resources to those with the greatest needs. We're going to go through each of the goals and some of the outcomes that have happened to date. So go one housing from 2009 to 2016. Over 800 permanent supportive housing beds have been created, bumping the number from 630 to 1452. In the same period, $3.5 million was allocated to Long Beach for rapid rehousing. In 2014 and 2015, the city itself facilitated the preservation of 1369 affordable units at risk of converting to market rate, which resulted in the extension of affordability for those housing units for the next 55 years. A total of nearly 2000 units have been preserved since 2008. As mentioned earlier, a number of housing developments are also underway to support homeless and people with mental illness at the Beacon Place, Anchor Place and others in the villages of Cumbria. In looking at goal too. In 2015 alone, over 6700 individuals accessed Goodwill Slack's job programs and Gateway Pacific. Gateway served almost 2400 people to support connection to employment. This is a total of over 9000 people in one year receiving employment support. When people come through the door of the Multi-Service Center, they are not only connected to Goodwill and Pacific Gateway, they are also connected to mainstream benefits, including Social Security, health insurance enrollment and benefits from the Department of Public and Social Services in an effort to get people reconnected to income sources. Go three are the supportive services goal. We've already discussed many supportive services that are in place in throughout Long Beach. Others include an increase in the mobile support mental health teams, which we call SB 82 street teams from the County Department of Mental Health. The children's clinic now has a mobile health clinic available to reach individuals who are living on the streets in Long Beach. We are engaged in discharge planning from hospitals and jail to ensure people are not released into homelessness. And we have increased outreach efforts overall, which has made a significant impact on reaching people who are living on the streets. Go for community involvement. We've been increasing community involvement and it's crucial to addressing homelessness holistically. Beginning in 2012, the city began increasing community engagement and building a governance structure for the continuum of care. The Continuum The Continuum of care board is made up of stakeholders in the community from different sectors, including the business improvement districts, public and private partnerships, our faith based community, the Long Beach Unified School District, and those who were formerly homeless. There's also a homeless service advisory committee whose members were appointed by the City Council and the mayor to represent each council district. All of these partners have deep ties in the community and committed to finding a solution to end homelessness. And go five outcomes in evaluation. The use of real time data is essential to appropriately evaluate and accurately understand the story. The city operates the homeless management information system that all partners are required to utilize to track, plan information and to coordinate care plans. The system not only connects all of the partners, it also helps us to highlight what we do well in areas for opportunity. Overall, the Long Beach system of care has been built with intention to specifically address the needs of our unique community. We also recognize that there are areas for growth and opportunity, which is why this session is so important and hearing from you is so important for future planning. We do have some challenges. Our city is facing multiple challenges in addressing homelessness and things are not getting easier. One key challenge is the increasing rents across the city. Apartment owners are choosing to increase rent and are asking people out to move out if they cannot afford them. This is leading to a crisis for families and seniors in Long Beach. More and more are being displaced. The amount of our Section eight vouchers is governed by HUD's fair market rates and are not as high as local rents in Long Beach. But our housing authority has recently negotiated exceptions to these rates and allowed it for a higher payment in hopes that apartment owners will increase acceptance. 60% of the housing stock in Long Beach consists of single to one single two one bedroom apartment, which limits the options even more for families with more than four people. We have a 2% vacancy rate in our city, which is very low, and it means competition for housing is an all time high. This is leading to fewer and fewer apartment owners interested in accepting Section eight vouchers. And again, it's we are spending over 490 individuals who are currently looking for housing. Statewide policy shifts and prison jail reforms are also making conditions more difficult. The loss of redevelopment removed the significant resource for building affordable housing. Prison and jail reforms have left more people on the streets, and many are being released without connection to housing. Others have more significant mental health and substance use issues. These are not currently being addressed due to lack of resources. We are seeing real increases in drug use on our streets and the drugs are becoming more and more potent and are causing more sometimes violent behavior. Right now, Long Beach only has 14 detox beds available for treatment for low income and homeless individuals. And that's not actually just for Long Beach. Those are for the region. In addition to these forces, there are higher levels of expectation from everybody in our city. Calls for response, as you've heard, have gone up significantly. Cleanup requests are going up as well and the costs are growing. So there's just an ongoing in the new challenges that are showing up. And we're doing our very best to address them.
Speaker 1: So I'm just going to talk briefly about Lincoln Park. So with the construction that's about to take place with City Hall. Lincoln Park will be closing within the next month. At that time, the project team will fence the Civic Center property to ensure safety during demolition and construction. This is a three year closure during the Civic Center renovation. The city and its partners have had a significant presence in the park, educating people about the closure as well as outreaching to connect them to services. More specifically, outreach efforts are being conducted daily by the Outreach Network. Monthly information sessions were held in the park starting six months prior to the fences going up by the Civic Center Task Force, led by the downtown Long Beach Business Association as the lead and the outreach network, signage informing the public of the park's closing has been posted around the park. Messaging regarding the park's closing is being distributed via social media outlets. Fliers have been placed on the fences and are regularly, regularly passed out downtown. Outreach and presentations have been have been made to neighborhood associations to inform residents of the construction project and timeline. And the city is also exploring alternative options for people to go at their own will, of course.
Speaker 8: We're going to shift. We're going to shift from from the services we have been providing to start to take a look about what a system looks like and how we can all contribute. There are many causes of homelessness. As you can see on the left side, what you'll find is those who when they walk in the door, those are the reasons at the very beginning, you know what they state is the reason that brought them to homeless. So you'll see loss of jobs evicted by a family member, abuse at home, incarceration. On the right side, you'll find that those things that have been in their lives are present in their lives that also contribute. So it may not be that that at that time the reason, but the many other reasons why people end up homeless . Given that this is the case, we have to think in terms of a comprehensive approach, focusing on just one thing, one, not solve the homeless issues now or in the future. Our current focus right now is on the red area. It's what's in front of us. It's where what everybody is focused on right now, how do we intervene and address what we're seeing right now on our streets? And there are many things that we can do. Street outreach and engagement, providing life skills and job skills, emergency transitional, permanent housing, much more mental health and substance abuse care . Ongoing supportive services, job skills training. There's a lot that we can be doing. But what we're facing now is that this is the most difficult and expensive time to work with individuals and families. It's why I have got Code Red, because we'd rather stop providing service now and provide it when it's easier to provide. And we keep people from entering homelessness. People are living in their cars, are on the streets, are experiencing much higher levels of disenfranchisement. Mental health conditions in substance abuse, addictions. There are multiple points in which we could proactively prevent homelessness. We call this upstream. So that's the green and the yellow. And so what we really want to be focusing on is the green. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. We want to start with our support of our youth and our young adults, particularly those transitioning out of foster care. Youth who are learning healthy have employment options, strong positive relationships, a place to live, are safe in their homes and communities they don't generally own. They don't generally end up homeless either as youth or as adults because they're experiencing success. Seniors who have support to stay in their homes, resourced to live and affordable housing options are also less likely to become homeless. We can help you with the many things that we can do to help, to prevent. So more housing. Housing for folks who need it now. But making sure that we have housing throughout the lifespan that is affordable. Mental health treatment is absolutely essential. Los Angeles County provides mental health and substance use treatment for Long Beach, either through direct service or by contracting providers. These services are not funded by the city. All mental health service within our city is provided by L.A. County. The Department of Mental Health is co-located at the Multi-Service Center to take referrals into our system. We really appreciate them as a partner. Mental Health America is also funded through our continuum of care and the Department of Mental Health to provide treatment and supportive housing for homeless individuals in our community. Substance use treatment is also a key area of need. There are currently only 14 detox beds and many of these in Long Beach and most are not language specific. Most detox take place takes place in emergency rooms or in jails. If criminal activity is present, most other substance use treatment is provided for those coming out of the criminal justice system. As there is additional funding for these individuals through HB 109 and probation funding. We continue to need additional housing and supportive services options such as child care and sufficient health care. So how can you help? How can the community help? So if we're focusing as far upstream as possible at the very early prevention, the key ways to help are supporting your schools with volunteering and mentoring, providing internships and learning opportunities for high school and college, connecting with individuals at different in difficult times. When you see someone struggling, connect, be aware of signs of mental health and substance use and help connect to treatment, provide jobs locally. The community can help in so many ways in our great city and we could start out by working together. It really gets everybody back on track to success and then we hopefully won't see people coming back. When we look at late prevention, meaning not yet homeless, but just on the verge and intervention, which is what we'll be doing now. We realize that there are so many good hearted people and organizations in Long Beach who want to help individuals and families, but often that help doesn't support a community solution providing food, clothing, tents, money, etc. to individuals in parks or on the streets and under bridges. It helps that individual for that moment or that day, but does not help them in the long term. We want to connect people to services to get them off the streets and into housing and services. And we need your help. Our next to slide show, you see a number of ways to truly support those who are homeless in the community. We ask that you donate funds and gift cards for services like haircuts or legal services to organizations who are serving people who are homeless. Volunteer to help move people in. Build a support network for people who are nearly housed. Help connect people with job skills and or employment opportunities. Sponsor furniture or other needed items for those who are moving in and have no furniture. Donate to the Mayor's Fund for Homeless in your utility bill or on the city's website. The power of everyone in this community coming together would be completely awesome. Oh, and by the way, the MSD says they need towels. This is a shameless plug because a lot of people come to shower and they need more towels. Sorry. So potential funding opportunities within our city. The city will be looking at a number of creative funding strategies, including easy ways to donate, such as parking meters designated for homeless electronic donation options, increased opportunities through the mayor's fund, social impact bonds and pay for performance strategies, as well as ongoing engagement and negotiation with the county regarding access to resources as they engage in growing its fund base for the housing, mental health, substance abuse and other supportive services. The Long Beach Continuum of Care is a best practice model nationally. We had a visit from the Appropriations Committee recently because they wanted to learn about how we coordinate so closely and how we've made so much progress and how we've used our unified funding agency strategy because they're still learning from us. However, we do not rest on our laurels in any way. We are aware that there are many innovative practices nationally to support homeless, and we're tracking on them. Unfortunately, many of these that sound really cool have unintended consequence, consequences that aren't really that positive. We want to make sure we're paying attention to this, that we do not end up in similar situations here. We're working closely with Los Angeles County to create opportunities for mental health and substance abuse diversion from criminal justice settings. We're looking at expanding opportunities at the Multi-Service Center and implementing clean teams to support the removal of materials such as couches and materials and mattresses in the city's alleys and parking lots. The one time $880,000 would be very helpful this year in supporting increased outreach in response. How are these resources will go fast because it does clean up. Costs are expensive. Looking forward, we have the perfect opportunity to develop a new, actionable plan to address homeless in Long Beach. It will take dedicated resources well beyond our current what our city currently invests. Previous planning has been unfunded, so results were limited. In an upcoming summit that includes a broad array of community, stakeholders will provide a perfect opportunity to continue to build on the five key strategies outlined in the ten year report recommendations. This will allow many to come together to generate solutions. This is currently being scheduled for spring 2017. In addition, we have a few stellar with us this year to help look at innovative practices and funding strategies to address homelessness. Views fellows who spent over 15 years in the private sector and bringing those skills to government for one year. I'd like to have Sharon stand up. Jim Moran is our Fuze fellow. You'll be seeing a lot of her in the next year. I'd also like to welcome Veronica join you see to it Veronica it's the front runner goes or other Hughes fellow. This year she'll be working on My Brother's Keeper and assisting with the Violence Prevention and Equity Office's. So we're very excited to have them. So thank you to the mayor and the Council for this generous public and private support to provide this incredible resource in these efforts. We will also be hosting community conversations. We want to focus on the earliest prevention opportunities as well as the best ways to intervene in homelessness now. It will be working over the next. We will be working over the next 6 to 9 months, including the summit and all of our other work together and engaging with you to build and to and to build upon the ten year plan and to build a plan for our city. Supporting people experiencing homelessness and addressing the impacts of homeless on our streets is a true balance in our community. Homelessness impacts so many at so many different levels. It is truly a community issue and requires full community engagement engagement to reach a solution based on participation in a number of community meetings and conversations. What I hear most is what is the city going to do about it? The city isn't doing enough. The city teams work tirelessly every day to respond to calls and to house people. We are one of the few cities in California that address homelessness in such a comprehensive way. Most other cities are just trying to figure it out. There just aren't enough city staff or enough funding to meet the community's expectations. If the expectation is that it's up to the city to make the change, it will take a while because we'll have to generate those resources on our own. We want to acknowledge many of you in the room who have taken the call to action to make a difference. It really has been my pleasure to work with you so far. All of us in this room, all of us in our great city, need to be part of the solution. We are the community. It would be easy for, as you speak today, to point a finger at the city and express your concerns. This will keep us and status quo. It won't forward any progress. You can also suggest solutions you believe the city should take on. But this continues to expect the city to be the only solution. In addition, many solution provided are focused on moving people or criminalizing homelessness. And this just is not allowable as it puts the city at great risk of lawsuit and court oversight. Instead, we challenge you that when you come to the microphone and when you speak in community meetings that you commit what you yourself will do to be part of a positive solution. Ten Homelessness in Long Beach. We've provided a number of suggestions earlier. As an apartment owner, provide units for Section eight and be flexible in your rents so that people, particularly families and seniors, can remain housed. Businesses and hotels provide job opportunities and training. Sponsor and organize volunteer groups. Donate meaningfully to organizations, individuals and families. Volunteer and support organizations who serve the homeless. Sponsor an individual or a family as they are moving in. By creating a moving kit list of opportunities. As long individually we can make progress. But we are only truly powerful when we come together for our community. Thank you for your time tonight. That concludes my report and we are open for questions.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you very much. That was a great presentation to you. I know your entire team. I know you worked very hard on that. We're going to now turn over to the city council, all have comments and questions and then we'll go to the public after that. So let me start with Councilman Price.
Speaker 9: Thank you. I just want to start out by making a few comments to city staff and thanking you for the presentation tonight, hearing what you do and the broad level of service that's involved in your operation. I think it's very important for our community to hear. I've had an opportunity to hear it several times and I do get very frustrated when people operate with assumptions that appear to be misinformed in terms of what the city is doing. So I applaud you for educating all of us tonight and for the education that you've provided to our individual council districts. I know that our district has had three community meetings on this topic. Teresa has been at all of them, starting with about a year and a half ago. And recently we had one. We had over 200 and about 250 people there. And this is a very emotionally charged issue. And I really like hearing what Kelly said in her closing remarks tonight about the challenge that if people are going to raise frustrations about the issue, that they also balance that with what they're willing to commit in terms of their personal resources to finding a solution or a problem. I look out at the audience today and I'm so appreciative for the many people in this room who have. An unbelievable level of compassion and heart, not just for the people who are going through the difficult times, but also for the city of Long Beach because they're trying to be proactive and be part of the solution. I look at Steve, Larry, I've had opportunities, invited me. My family and I have gone to the U.S., oh, at the first congressional church. And we have served food there and plan to go again. I think about LBJ and the very progressive efforts that they have taken on to address the issue in their community. And of course, Craig's editorial in the press telegram was very moving to me and something that I wish that many people in the city would read. I think about Gio Ferrera's efforts in her community to try to be a change agent. Allison Crip, Joe Ganim, all of these individuals. Gaylord from my district is here. He's really trying to educate his community. These individuals, among many that I haven't named, are partners to us in this problem. There is a lot of frustration. I sometimes I read some of the I try not to do it too often, but sometimes I read the social media posts and things about people who say, well, you know what, the city or our Susie Price, you know, she seems like she's still trying to figure out this homeless thing. You know, maybe we can we can have somebody there who actually knows what to do with the problem. And I always say if there's someone out there that knows how to fix this issue, I would like to know their name. I would like to vote for them. I would like to hug them. I would like to welcome them to the city because this is a region regional problem and we're all trying to work together to figure it out. And so all of the people that I just referenced and many others that I didn't are trying to be partners with us as we think more long term. You know, some of the things that we often hear about and I want to ask a couple of questions about it tonight, but some of the things that we often hear about are suggestions that people give on how to deal with the situation are one, you know, not legal or to a short sighted, you know, you can't move people from one area to the other. It doesn't really address the bigger problem. If you have somebody that, let's say, for example, needs substance abuse treatment, we need to figure out a way how to get them the substance abuse treatment because moving them from one location to another is really a short term solution for the people that are in the immediate vicinity of the area where the movement is happening. And that's one of the biggest things that's been really my focus given my background in my career. The substance abuse aspect has been a very concerning issue for me because I don't think we have the resources or the mechanisms to help people get the treatment that they need so that they can start to make some of the changes that we were talking about in terms of long term solutions. So I'm always interested in that. So I wanted to ask kind of start off with that Kelly and or Teresa, have we noticed that we've had a rise in the level of folks who maybe are suffering from substance abuse problems? And if so, what opportunities do we have for them to get treatment?
Speaker 8: We are saying we are seeing an increase in drug use on the streets. The other thing that we're seeing is that the drugs that are being used are causing more erratic behaviors. And so what we're finding is that, you know, as some people are coming to the multi-service center and other places, we're just noticing this river that is more and more difficult to to to have conversations and to engage with people. We do need substance abuse treatment. So the county, through its Department of Public Health, provides that treatment through using, you know, Medicaid funding through the state. But there just are not a whole lot of providers within the city of Long Beach that provide unfunded or Medi-Cal, Medi-Cal substance abuse treatment.
Speaker 9: Do we have any residential drug treatment programs in the city of Long Beach?
Speaker 8: So if.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 8: Safe refuge. Yeah. Safe refuge. And then there's redgate. Thank you. I don't have the full list here in front of me in Tarzana. Yeah. He'll Hey, everyone, everyone who has been experiencing this and the community will share. There are waiting lists for all of them and they are difficult to get into.
Speaker 9: I imagine also that even even if we had more available, which it sounds like there's definitely a need there to provide those opportunities, even if we had those available. I imagine just on my own personal experience. With folks who have had substance abuse problems very close to me, it's hard to get them to actually seek the treatment , especially an intense treatment like a residential treatment program where you have to go through the detox and all of that. Are there any mechanisms to incentivize treatment? I know that prior to Prop 47, we had drug court, which could incentivize rehab in lieu of a felony conviction. But what do we have now? Do we have anything that can incentivize drug treatment?
Speaker 8: There are not a whole lot of incentives to drug treatment beyond when we're doing outreach and engagement. The more that we build those capacities with folks, we build that relationship. They start to understand that they need it. And then we work to get them into treatment to help support their ability to move, you know, to help them maintain their housing. We do use the housing first model in Long Beach, which means that anybody you know that it's not a requirement to be clean before getting into housing. So, so so people will be housed. We can then help support whatever is going on from there. There is a community collaborative courtroom that is in Long Beach and they are working to be able to provide some some incentives through that courtroom into treatment, into some connection. We're looking at some other national models as well with the with the city prosecutor and the police department that would be around and offering treatment opportunities in connection to treatment opportunities in lieu of citation.
Speaker 9: Now, so if I'm hearing you correctly and this is something I didn't know, so we do offer housing even if someone is under the influence of a substance and maybe hasn't detoxed yet that the housing is still offered.
Speaker 8: Yes, housing first is housing first. I mean, that's you know, that doesn't rely on any other it doesn't rely on them changing their lifestyle or anything. It's like we want to make sure people are housed and if that is your most baseline of service from there we help support people moving into other support services.
Speaker 9: And then do we have the treatment and services available for them if they do get into housing to help them go through that transition immediately? We do the detox and the rehabilitation.
Speaker 8: We don't. There are services available and supportive services models, but there's not sufficient. And what we find sometimes that people are in the housing authority or other places like that, they may start falling out of service. So we get people housed and because their substance use is not managed or their mental illness is not managed, and they start to fall out of housing. And what we are seeking to do is provide additional services to try and unders to put together a model where we could do additional scattered site support so that those who are in the housing authority or that we're housing through any other Section eight or any other ways to make sure that we have stronger support systems for them to help them remain in housing.
Speaker 9: There's a couple of things that we often hear. I'm not sure if my colleagues hear them. I'm sure they do, but I think they're myths. But I'm not sure. Are there, to your knowledge, different cities busing in their homeless and dropping them off in Long Beach? I get calls about that on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: We have had those questions. To our knowledge, no people have free will to get on a bus and travel wherever they want to go. But there, to our knowledge, there are no cities that are intentionally filling up bus loads and dropping them off in Long Beach.
Speaker 9: Okay. And similarly, you talked about vouchers. Can you tell me can you tell us a little bit more who qualifies for vouchers and how many hotels do we have in the city where they can use the vouchers?
Speaker 1: Sure, the cons the city contracts with two specific hotels in the city that can use vouchers. Folks that get vouchers through the multi-service center have to come in or come in through the door. They go through a full assessment and they their homeless status is acknowledged and then they receive a voucher and that's for a hotel. So there's two different vouchers, though. There's hotel vouchers and then there's vouchers for section eight. So that's where there's some confusion that lies.
Speaker 9: Okay. So the hotel vouchers do is there a priority system for who gets those and how many do we issue?
Speaker 1: So. So when people are coming in to meet with the case manager and receive it, they start they get on a housing plan. Hotels are used as a bridge to housing. So if there's not an emergency shelter bed available, then that's when a hotel will be used.
Speaker 9: Okay. And is there a priority for families or veterans when it comes to those vouchers?
Speaker 1: The families are, ah, they go through the Family Solution Center and they have a certain amount of hotel vouchers that they utilize. And then through the multi-service center, through our case managers, they serve veterans and individuals there. So their Family Solution Center is also co-located at the Multi-Service Center. So everybody is connected in that space.
Speaker 9: And how many vouchers are we talking about in terms of the hotel vouchers? What would what's a rough estimate of what we would get?
Speaker 8: Our team is offering its. What's it? It's fewer than 50.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a small amount.
Speaker 9: Fewer than 50 on a monthly basis. Annual basis.
Speaker 8: An.
Speaker 9: Annual basis. Less than 50 vouchers on an annual basis. So I think that's a myth, too, that we hear a lot about, is that the city, you know, that people are choosing maybe to be homeless because the city is giving out these vouchers. That seems to be an incorrect information. Okay. I'm going to stop asking questions so that my colleagues can ask a few questions. And then I'd love to hear from the public as well, because I could go all night and I won't.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next up, we have Vice Mayor Richardson.
Speaker 10: Thank you, Mayor Garcia. So I want to just begin by thanking staff. I was impressed and a number at numerous points during your presentation. And I know you have limited resources and it's easy to to say what should be done. But with limited resources, you prove and demonstrate why we were fortunate to have a health department. We're able to do so much more here locally than a lot of the many other communities can do, while still using very little of our general funds resources. So I just want to start off by saying thank you and when you make sure you clap for them. So there was a comment about homelessness as a community. And I can tell you, homeless the homeless community is a community. There's we actually have a nonprofit here in Long Beach that they volunteer. It's called Wrap the Kids. They volunteer, they make they knit sweaters and they're made up for the most part of active homeless folks. And I can tell you, they volunteer at higher levels then, you know, then neighborhood activists we've seen for many, many years. And they are a community. And we should think of this in this conversation. We should keep it in context that this is these are human beings. So I totally understand when we say what am I willing to do frame our own, you know, our conversation in that in that context, I just have a few questions. And, you know, I say few, about four or five. We've been home to the winter shelter, the Long Beach once winter shelter the last four or five years in District nine. And I'm just curious, how many people do we know on hand? And I didn't see it on the slide. But how many people do we typically serve at the winter shelter every year?
Speaker 1: So typically, on average, about 200. There's 200 beds at the winter shelter. So the average capacity through the winter, the beds are typically full.
Speaker 10: Okay. And I know that we're in. It's October now, and winter's winter is coming. Oh, I got to say. I got to say it. So I. I know that. I know that that's happening. What where are we in the process of setting up our our shelter? I know that we typically last few years, we've gotten better at notifying the public and going through that process. But where are we today with setting up the winter shelter?
Speaker 1: Sure. Well, the winter shelter is actually funded by Los Angeles County, the Lahsa. And so they release an RFP and then the provider of the winter shelter apply for that RFP. So the city of Long Beach doesn't release that RFP. It's not under our purview. We're more of a middle, middle person for for lack of a better term. And so it's October, the RFP will be released soon and then the application the applicants will apply. And so we're in our process through the city. The city council will be receiving a letter very soon about our process.
Speaker 10: Thank you. I know we typically have to like declare an emergency and take all those steps. Right. So so thanks for the update and keep us posted. I had a chance to go to the housing authority headquarters maybe a month or so ago. And it was it was really shocking to hear that there's almost 500 people with vouchers ready to be placed. But we haven't found the places to to take them, the apartment owners to actually take them. And I had a sort of off the cuff conversation with property owners today. And I you know, I would say there might be some immediate opportunities to help serve these people. And when I think of, you know, the Section eight voucher, I think these are people that are right at the brink that can be helped from slipping into active homelessness. So so have we engaged the property owners and talked about what the barriers are and educated them, that we can actually pay a higher amount to make sure these people are are placed? But what what steps would be taken to think creatively about making sure we're using these vouchers?
Speaker 8: Well, the housing authority meets regularly with the apartment associations. They presented every conference that they can get into to share information. They are on first name basis with every owner that is out there that currently takes Section eight. And they're working on first name basis for almost every other owner in the city, really seeking opportunities to to create those spaces. In addition, they have negotiated with the Federal Housing Authority to be able to to have an exception payment or acceptance standard, which will allow us to pay more than what the current standard is. So in some communities, it can be up to 100, 120% of that standard, which we're hoping it gets us much closer to the actual rents for those apartments. And we believe that that should help in the in the rentals.
Speaker 11: Great.
Speaker 10: Thank you. And I would say I would say, you know, based on the conversation I had today, I think it would be be good to just have a brainstorm session. Again, I know it's one thing to meet routinely. It's another thing to have a specific conversation about, you know, how do we turn it up right now and address this need of this 490 people? I think we can. I am hopeful that we can move the needle in five more units immediately. And I'm willing to call out, you know, the apartment owners and say, help us meet this need. You know, we do a lot of this council to try to make sure things are business friendly to apartment owners and things like that and make adjustments well so that this is an opportunity for the apartment was to step up and help the city meet its commitment on homelessness. I would also say with respect to I heard the mention that we do use these vouchers on on hotels. And that made me just think about where we have a number of underutilized nonconforming motels that are being used for a lot of other purposes. Have we explored whether we could modernize or convert those motels into quality transitional housing? And can we use some of those funding to accomplish that, some of the Section eight HUD funding for that.
Speaker 8: The Section eight funding can only be used in a place that has cooking. So a microwave and a bathroom. So. So they could be they could be they could be updated. So sometimes an SRO or a single room occupancy unit don't have those in. The definitions within the city are different. So there's the motels and you could use section eight as sort of efficiency units one by one room units as long as there's cooking in a in a restroom in that room. We have not currently looked into modernization at this point, but we have been approached by a couple of different housing providers and rehab providers who might be interested in that conversation.
Speaker 10: Thank you. And I'll just close with just some thoughts that I have about this, this entire issue with the loss of redevelopment, that was a significant blow to the local funding that we had to actually develop robust, affordable housing. 20% of all the tax increment had to go to affordable housing development. And with the loss of redevelopment, we lost that tool. So we think we need to go back to the drawing board and be more creative. And I know there's efforts around town about this, but I would say, you know, if you were to look at an affordable housing conversion, one to have in mind is the Bellwood Arms on Atlantic or across from Halton Park. This place looks fantastic. It is. You know, it's inside and out. And if I were in college, I would love to stay at a place like that. And right next door, the market rate housing. I took a tour of some market rate housing right next door and it was very substandard in the conditions of living and the affordable housing was cheaper and higher quality. I think we need to be smarter about changing the conversation about affordable housing and I completely support that. And secondly, we are a large city and we need we need to make sure we have given honest conversation, inclusionary housing. We need to interconnect density, bonuses, incentives, whatever we can be creative and think of. We need to connect that to inclusionary housing. I'm okay publicly saying that I support it. Boston. Denver. Sacramento. San Diego. San Francisco. All have inclusionary housing. Long Beach should have a real conversation about it. So that's that's where I'll end. But thank you so much.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next up, we have Councilwoman Gonzalez.
Speaker 4: Yes. I too only have about 20 questions, so hang tight. I'm kidding. I just want to thank everybody here in the room as well. I know everybody's been working so very hard. I can't even name everybody because it's just been incredible. I think together we are a lot stronger and I'm just very proud to see the direction we're headed. And I want to thank, first and foremost our health department. I know you all are working very hard and diligently oftentimes on grant funding and it's tough. But I want to thank you all for your your efforts. So every single inner city employee within the health department. I want to thank you. Yes. So a couple quick questions. And some things have been brought up in the past that I would like to just kind of reopen the discussion to. There have been there has been talk about individuals with pets in shelters that would include animals. And so I don't know where that discussion ended up. Do we know where that's ended up?
Speaker 1: We we are shelters do allow pets. We do. Yeah. People can bring their pets along. And our the staff work tirelessly to make sure that people can stay connected to their pets. Many of those pets end up coming home with us. But, you know, people that's there's a lot of people's support system. And so they become service animals and support to folks. And so it's very important that people can stay connected to that.
Speaker 0: But not all shelters. I mean, some shelters maybe allow pets, but I don't believe all do.
Speaker 1: In the single shelters.
Speaker 0: Okay. Just wanted to clarify.
Speaker 4: Okay. So if we can get a number on that, I'd be good to find out how many shelters do allow, because we hear that coming up a bit. Secondly, in regards to our youth, I know there's been talk about students at Cal State, Long Beach, one in ten are homeless. That's been a big topic of discussion. I believe there had been a grant received by the university last year and also Long Beach City College. I know that there are individuals that are homeless there as well. So what is our discussion around students and what are we how are we working in conjunction with our universities? And sure.
Speaker 1: We're actually working very closely with the university, with Cal State, Long Beach, and also with the City College to address the student needs. So that staff, many of the staff have gone out on a monthly basis to engage with the university and the city college. And I'm continuing to sit on panels. We're being invited to do presentations, to engage with them, and we're inviting them to be part of our continuum of care general membership team to make sure that we're engaged with not just the colleges, but also with with Long Beach Unified School District as well.
Speaker 4: So that's great. Thank you very much. And then I, I also have a question on the LGBTQ community within our homeless reporting. So every January when we get this report, do we know how many individuals identify as LGBTQ and what additional resources may be provided to them with that.
Speaker 1: During the the point in time count, that question is not asked.
Speaker 4: Okay. Is that something we can add? Because I think that would be beneficial.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're just starting discussions about different questions that we want to in and include in that point in time count and our Fuze fellow is going to participate in some of that as well. And we really want to gather more information about who our population is and I mean who our community members are and where they're coming from. So that's.
Speaker 4: Wonderful. Amazing. Can I add.
Speaker 0: One thing to that point before you continue, Councilwoman? So I just want to make sure, because I think that's an important point I've read and I could be wrong, but I read that the national statistics on LGBT, on homeless youth is about 40% of all homeless youth are actually LGBTQ, which is really high versus obviously the current population. And so I think what the councilwoman is also speaking to is that there is a there are very special needs within that population on top of the the stress of being homeless. And there are domestic violence. There's issues of what's going on at the home, of not having family support. And so I just I think I'm really glad that Councilman Gonzales brought this up. And I would be interested to just exploring what the best practices are around this question, because I know it's especially true within homeless youth. And so I'm glad that got brought up. So, Councilman Gonzales.
Speaker 4: Yes, thank you for reinforcing that message. I think it's really key and I'm glad will be including that in our reporting with our Fuze fellows. I'm glad to hear that. And then I know I had brought up there will be a report coming back, I believe, in November. There's a number of items that I included in that agenda item that include substance abuse, housing, children and families. In regards to the substance abuse issue, are we looking at any models and can we bring that forward in November with just a couple of models? That may be I mean, it may be pie in the sky and too costly, but at least if we have some framework around what that may look like, I know Councilwoman Pryce brought up some great points in regards to substance abuse, but I think it's such a national epidemic right now. I think it needs more emphasis. And so it'd be great to get more information back in November related to certain models we can implement.
Speaker 8: You can make sure that's included.
Speaker 4: Thank you. And then a couple more questions. So I know I believe we talked about this Kelly weekend outreach. What type of support do we have on the weekends?
Speaker 8: Currently, the phone line is available. People can call in and on Monday morning, first thing, that phone line is checked and then we conduct outreach throughout the rest of the throughout the rest of the week. Folks can call two, one, one if they need additional supports and they can provide connection to other services as well.
Speaker 4: Okay. And there's not any physical outreach being conducted over the weekend, though, so it's just the hotline, is that correct?
Speaker 8: Correct.
Speaker 4: Okay, great. And I think the last question I had was just.
Speaker 8: I've just been corrected. Mental health America does do outreach. Our city staff does not do outreach and mental health in Marion. Does that make it perfect?
Speaker 4: Great. And then one last question I have is in relation to housing, of course, which is very important. Do we have any idea? You know, a lot of questions have been or topics of discussion have been around families. Of course, you had discussed, you know, rents increasing. We have a lot of families that need housing. I've also heard of, you know, artists, teachers. Do we have an idea of what type of demographic could be served best with affordable housing or is it just families at this point? Do we know any other specific demographics? I know it's a pretty.
Speaker 8: Category so it's certainly going all.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know everybody.
Speaker 8: Yeah. So that the that information we don't have that information right here but we can we can be provided. But really we're looking at the need across all different populations and backgrounds.
Speaker 4: Sure. Okay. Because I don't know if there's different types of funding models that could be used. I mean, every time we think of affordable housing, we often go towards seniors and veterans, which is great. We definitely need that. But I think there's also other groups that could be served as well, and maybe there's an easier time in getting funding for those specific groups. That's just the the reason I'm asking.
Speaker 8: Sure. If you if you'd like more specific information, Patrick, do you have do you have that information where we can get we can come back to you?
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 8: That would just a difference.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: Do you want to bring that back in November as well?
Speaker 8: We'll just bring it back. We'll bring it back. Sorry.
Speaker 4: Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 7: That's that's an yeah, that's an entirely different subject. Homelessness. And we can come back with that.
Speaker 4: Okay, perfect. Thank you, Pat. And so I also want to just add that I think also our police department, our quality of life team is absolutely incredible. Yes, of course. For them as well. I was just speaking to some downtown residents yesterday at their meeting and touted the great work of our quality of life team. If you are on Facebook and you ever get a chance to go on Officer Brad, few tax page to see real life what he's doing with mint, which many service providers do. But the fact that our police officers are doing this daily along the river, you know, in encampments, just in the trenches, working directly with homelessness, I urge you to look at their Facebook pages and see what they're doing. So thank you all for your amazing work and I appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Go ahead. Go. Okay. What? Yeah. So I want to also. Yeah.
Speaker 10: Okay. Councilmember Pierce, you're up next.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um, so I want to, you know, echo everything that my colleagues have said about thinking, you know, everybody that's been thanked. Everybody that showed up today. Everybody that is trying to help us find a solution. I do think that Long Beach, you know, from the conversations I have had, is above and beyond what a lot of other cities have done. And so being thankful for that and then challenging ourselves to be bold and innovative and think outside the box is the best way that we as a community are going to be able to, you know, resolve and tackle some of these issues that are not just Long Beach issues, but are regional issues. And so I have obviously a few questions and I think. You know, first want to ask, are there opportunities, training opportunities that the department, the health department or other organizations in the city are doing to engage businesses and residents who might come across people that are homeless?
Speaker 1: Currently we are getting a lot of questions and requests for training. So we have a mental health first aid training that we encourage anybody to participate in. And we're all also connected to trauma informed care training that we also encourage folks to participate in. But that request is coming to us quite often and staff do informal trainings, we go out and present quite a bit, but we are looking further into developing something more formal.
Speaker 5: Thank you. I think that a few of my colleagues and I would definitely I know that we're meeting later on in the week and so thank you for that, particularly before Linkin Park closes to ensure that those communities that might not experience as many homeless will have the training and support that they need on how to interact and who to call and know what steps to take should that time come? I wanted to ask about the vouchers. I know that, you know, there's the limit on the way around 50 a year. Is there is there a mechanism to increase the number of vouchers for the hotel stay?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. So a mechanism for an increase? Mm hmm. Just money. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Just money.
Speaker 1: I just need more resources around that. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Okay. And where do the resources come for those hotel vouchers?
Speaker 1: County through grants.
Speaker 5: Through grants. Okay. Yeah. The council vice mayor brought up the sorrows. And I think that this is a conversation we've had and not only with the city, but talking about private developers that might want to, you know, support helping the city. And there are challenges with the homeless community. And, you know, some ideas have been thrown out there about taking those. SOROS Having a developer buy them and then having the city or an entity within the city provide wraparound services as bridge housing or transitional housing that would last in between 6 to 9 months while they find permanent housing since we have a 2% vacancy. What are some challenges to doing that?
Speaker 8: Well, certainly right now we don't have the service providers to provide those wraparound services. I mean, we have we have service providers. We don't have the funding to provide those wraparound services. So we would be looking at that and it would be working with the planning department and others around housing and the focus on that and the and the SRO. So once again, SRO cannot be you cannot use Section eight supports for those right. That you can for you can four motels. And so it's really having a conversation in the city around those specific those specific units and then looking for the supportive resources to make sure that people can stay in and have the ability to stay.
Speaker 5: And I had a great meeting just today, just happen to be today with Brian from Century Villages. And, you know, that question came up and talking about how much it would cost per unit. So you had a motel that was converted to be able to be used longer term wraparound services, around 1200 at a year per person . What does it cost that that it would cost to provide wraparound services outside of the housing.
Speaker 8: I don't have a specific number for that, but we can get back to you with that number.
Speaker 5: I have another question. It's the city participating in any pharmaceutical takeback events.
Speaker 8: No, not at this time.
Speaker 5: Okay. And then one last question. One of the challenges being the clean ups and the fact that, you know, whether it's in Bixby Park or Lincoln Park, that people are leaving some of their belongings in places. I know that we have places for them at the Multi-Service Center. Is there a barrier or a reason not to provide things like lockers in areas that tend to have a lot of homeless people around?
Speaker 8: Sometimes some of the to have lockers. We're not really sure what goes into them. And so it's it's it can be a real security risk. And so that's one of the reasons why we have not moved forward in that direction. We do store when when cleanups are conducted. We do provide storage of personal possessions for 90 days and people can go and pick those up.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 5: Thank you. And the last thing I'll say is, I know that you and I have talked a little bit, Kelly, about trying to do something like a day laborer program, you know, as we're talking about all the areas of focus here and economic support. And I just look forward to continuing that conversation on how we can partner with organizations like MH or villages to support getting people into some some jobs that will give them integrity as well as a paycheck. And so I look forward to that discussion. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Ringo.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Mayor. Great discussion. I also want to add my voice to the health department and Mr. Colby and her staff for the great, wonderful work they're doing with help with the homeless. I don't have any questions per say in regards to what's going on. And we know basically what what those issues are. But I'm looking at slide number 47 where how to prevent and intervene in homelessness. And we're looking at the various, uh, bullets there that, uh, they provide some assistance and guidance in how to prevent and intervene. And what I see here is it's a multi-jurisdictional effort that needs to take place. We need to we need to work more closely with our partners, with with the county, with the state, with our neighboring cities, because it's always a concern. And I want to acknowledge the presence of a Connie's people from a supervisor cannabis office who is here, because cannabis office has been a very, very supportive friend of the city of Long Beach. And unfortunately, he's termed out and you'll be leaving office very soon. And and with him goes Connie. And Connie has been a champion for the city of Long Beach. And everything that we've done in any area, and especially when we're talking about homelessness as well. So I want to congratulate her on her service as a. And having said that, you know, we we have had some discussion about some other ways that we could address it. But one of the questions I was going to ask but it's already been addressed was this whole issue about Housing First, the Housing First model, because I think that that's an important aspect of how we can deal with homelessness in regards to having. Housing that we need to we need to find that first. I mean, that's, you know, the definition of homelessness is, oh, so we got to find people homes and and when I'm talking about a multi-jurisdictional effort is also a multi community effort that we've talked about affordable housing in regards to maybe providing affordable apartment apartments, looking at single remarkable things we're looking at maybe when the next time we have a new development, you know, putting in there some kind of aspect of of affordable accommodations in those areas because that's that's where the problem is. When you have a 2% vacancy rate, there's not going to be much out there. And having an increase of vouchers is great but if there's not the of the housing and is not available to people of the largest we want but the but there's not going to be any use for them. So we have to look at our housing stock. We have to look at housing developments that are going to be coming in to the city where we're basically built out. So there's not going to be a whole opportunity for that. And so the only other way is to build up. And and in the end, I think that when it comes down to homelessness, I think most of them are not looking for handouts. They're looking for hands up hand ups. So we need to change how we we we view and we look at homeless individuals and trying to not help them but perhaps guide them into those areas that that they need support. And because I as an example, there's a major a homeless encampment in my district in Will Springs Park, and out of perhaps 50 individuals that are there, only one accepted assistance. So that that says a lot about what kind of outreach work we're doing to these individuals and why are so many of the other ones. I'm 49, are not accepting the services, so there's got to be something there that we're not doing right that we need to evaluate, though, when it comes down to making an offer, assisting them with their with their homeless issues and the great majority of them not wanting to to accept it. So we need to perhaps reevaluate how we're doing it and and perhaps, you know, be little before we get out there into into the service area, be introspective in terms of what are we doing wrong so that we can address their needs a lot better. And as I've said before, I mean, the the there's no stronger commitment to addressing the issue than the commitment that we make as a city with our financial commitment and putting more money into it to help the Health Department and the Homeless Services Bureau from relying solely on grants from the state and from the feds and from everywhere else, and institutionalize a lot of these these efforts that we're trying to do out there. And I don't know how we're going to do that. Obviously, taxes is a bad word, although Measure eight passed pretty good. But, you know, we need to look at at how we as a community have to have to deal with that and that Slide 44, it basically tells me that that we that that it takes a village and it's going to take a lot more than that as well to address this homeless issue if we want to really want it to go away. Jobs, housing, health care, counseling, all that. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Hastert.
Speaker 2: Thank you. And I'll try to be brief. I'm battling a little bit of a chest cold right now. And many of my my colleagues have addressed many of the points that I wanted to address. I want to thank staff for an excellent presentation. All of our partners, Continuum of Care partners on path. I want to thank my and my homeless advisory commission advisor, Andy Kerr, who was actually here with him pretty regularly. And I thank the mayor for for calling the study session, because this is long overdue. Yes. I think as evident from the presentation, we've done some great work and we're doing some great work here in the city of Long Beach. But looking at the numbers, we still have room for improvement. And as we strive for excellence in government, we should be striving for continuous improvement. And so I'm really concerned that two outreach workers is not going to get it done for the city. I've said that over and over again during our last budget conversation as well, and particularly when you hear that multiple contacts are needed to the homeless to to actually get them to move to outreach workers 2120 400 homeless in the city. That math doesn't add up, doesn't make me feel inspired that we're going to get things done and resolve the issues the way they need to be resolved. And I agree with Kelly's point that we all need to be part of the solution, that that's extremely important. Jeanine. Councilmember Pearce touched on the need for. More volunteer opportunities. And I think that's something that we need to really, really explore, volunteer and training opportunities. We need to have a boot camp to address this crisis. As I'm looking at this crowd right here. There's clearly a sustainable approach to having some volunteers go out there to help with the outreach and to get services and help for those in need. So that's something that I'm looking forward to potentially working on as well as as a solution. When listening to the presentation and all of the comments thus far, it's clear that we need to expand our capacity for for housing and resources to and to be creative in doing so for temporary and long term housing. There's recently was a bill passed in Sacramento and it was was pretty contentious, but it was SB 1069. Are you staff aware of that Bill right now? It was passed. That was, I guess, the the the quick name for it was Granny Flats that would allow for residential homes, a allow for residential properties to expand on their properties and build small apartment units. There was a concern about local, local control there, but that bill passed and was signed by by the governor, believe about a week or so ago that we would talk about expanding capacity and all of us be a part of the solution. That is a big one. One way that we can look at doing that and I would love to get some. I know we're going to have a state ledge committee meeting in a couple of weeks next week. No, two weeks. We'll get a report back on that there. But I think I'd like to get a report back for the full council on that as well, because that that may expand some opportunity. And I want to thank the council for also voting to to send a strong message to Sacramento, asking the governor to declare homelessness as a as a as an emergency crisis in the state that could and would bring, you know, $100 million or so that could be divided up into various counties and bring resources to assist us. And so we'll continue to work on that and and other funding opportunities. At the end of the day, we have to do a gut check as a as a city. Other cities, other public entities are looking at ways to fund homelessness. We brought forth an item that we'd like to see piloted to have parking meters installed throughout the old parking meters installed throughout the city to to help individuals raise money and raise consciousness about the need to help those in need. And we'll continue to work on this. But I wanted to just just just raise my give my, my, my support to this. The study session is I've learned quite a bit here. Even though you sit on the city council, you're you're hit with a deluge of issues. You never know. You don't always get to dig in deep and understand and an issue as deeply as this. And so I really want to appreciate staff for their presentation and just let you all know that I'm committed to, to, to moving this issue as long as I'm up on this dais. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman. Councilmember Supernova.
Speaker 10: Thank you. And I'll be the last member speaking tonight, so be patient and I'll be very, very brief because I'd like to hear our experts in the audience speak also. I'm pretty new to this. I've just been involved since 2008. But I do recall the homeless count in January of 2009. I had the area of the greater Los Altos area, huge area, and we had one person in our homeless count. I would hazard a guess that that will not be the case this coming January. I'd also just like to thank staff and they do such a great job out there. I see Shannon in the audience and also I don't know if Alison remembers, but in 2008 I came to visit you, a private citizen. And it's just so ironic. You summed it all up that day. I think it was March 28, and we have so many of the same issues today, but we've made a lot of progress nonetheless.
Speaker 11: But Councilmember Pryce.
Speaker 10: Just reminded me of something in your comments about the disinformation out there are urban legends. And I know Teresa and Shannon. I were in a meeting with some business leaders and someone took some shots at community hospital. That patient dumping just totally unsubstantiated issues. Oh one was giving drugs that they're selling on the street, and none of that was true. But community hospital had to respond. And I thought, boy, the irony here is the 28 bed psych unit and the top of the tower, a community hospital, and I'd hate to see that ever leave. And I just start to see.
Speaker 11: Us protect.
Speaker 10: And save the resources we do have. Because if we lost those 28 beds, you have 72 hour, 5150 holes, you have 24 hour voluntary services there. And so I guess that's the message I'd like to leave everyone and such as preserve what we have and then try to enhance new ideas. Also, the last point I'd like to make is that we talk about this singular entity, homeless, and as the folks in the audience, many of you know, it's far from that. It's an incredibly diverse population of individuals. And to that, I think it's going to take a diverse group of resources to address this issue. And I'd like to suggest that we ask all those who are compassionate on the homeless issues for help, and let's ask those who are not quite compassionate yet. And what I a line I use when in these meetings is, you know, I don't need you to be compassionate, but at least be practical, be pragmatic about this, that the best way to address the issue is to help with the services. So that's my message for tonight. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember. I'm going back to Councilmember Pearce.
Speaker 5: Just to mess with you, Councilmember Juvenile, since you said you were the last, I did have one more question and I just want to thank everybody for putting together the rapid response team, the fact that we'll have the van that was included in the budget this year. I know that there had been some talk about that being about a 40 hour a week proactive kind of look. And I was hoping that we could come back with maybe what are the times that we get majority of our calls and trying to make sure that we have that team during those hours and possibly on the weekends as well, knowing that, you know, as a city, we're not providing that service on the weekends. And so just wanted to make sure that we included that.
Speaker 8: We will come back with the plan.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. That concludes the council questions for now on the topic. And I'm going to go and turn this over now to public comment. And just like we would normally do public comment, we'll go to line up and just as a reminder, please, guys, so we can just orderly make sure you say your name, okay, so that we know who you are for the record. And we will go ahead and have the timer up for you to comment. Hey, everyone, I need you. I need everyone to quiet down, please, so we can be respectful. Sure. Who is because there's a significant amount of folks. We're going to begin by doing some comments at 3 minutes and then we might have to go down to 2 minutes as we go into the into the study session. Okay. Unless there's objection from the counsel. So we're going to begin. Please go ahead.
Speaker 4: Hello, my name is Elizabeth Waite. I am the student rep on the homelessness task force at Long Beach City College. I'm also on the PCC Student Council representing the Senior Studies Program. As Councilman Super now pointed out, the homeless are not one large, faceless entity. There's a lot of diversity in the group, and I'm here to speak on behalf of one particular constituency which are homeless college students. There is an epidemic of homelessness on college campuses. There was recently an article in the L.A. Times that reported that at least one in ten CSU students is homeless. And to my knowledge, 500 students at Long Beach City College are documented as homeless. It is a very difficult problem there. I've had I have personal experience with this issue, and I cannot stress how hard it is to try and go through college and also not have a roof over your head and live out of your car or couch surf or live in shelters. It is it's enormously difficult. And it's hard because these are not people that look like your typical homeless person. They aren't necessarily on drugs. They don't necessarily have mental health issues. They look like integrated members of society. But as students, they do not have a place to live. And there I guarantee you probably know somebody or know somebody who knows a homeless college student.
Speaker 12: It's it's it's.
Speaker 4: An oh, we have an overwhelming need for help in this issue.
Speaker 12: I it's.
Speaker 4: Really staggering. It's really staggering. I work with Virginia to revise and her in Ginny Baxter has people coming to them every single day with needing assistance, with rent, with housing, with books. Because the problem, the strain is so intense right now. As I said, I'm the rep of student homelessness. October 9th, we're having an event where it's going to we're going to raise money for homeless students in Albuquerque. It's going to be at the Lacy campus. And I want to do everything possible to work with you guys. I'm new to this, you know, advocacy. I'm new to all of these. The complexity of the issue. I understand it's a very difficult issue. There's a large number of societal factors going into creating it. But I want to do everything possible to collaborate with you guys and, you know, get resources and help and do whatever I can to assist in this problem and speak for this constituency of people. Once again, it's obviously housing is cost effective in terms of taxes. In a most practical level, when you house people, you don't have to pay for them going to the E.R. or going and receiving other different types of services. Ultimately, it's an investment because it cuts down the costs over a long period of time and the morally right thing to do. So please, please approach me. I'd love to talk to all of you and work with all of you as much as I possibly can. Once again, my name's Elizabeth Waite, and I'm thank you for letting me speak.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 3: I'm Mark Madeline, East Village resident in District two. I thank you guys for having this meeting tonight. Mayor and council.
Speaker 11: Members. I could go on and on, but I have.
Speaker 3: 3 minutes and I think I've ever done anything in 3 minutes. So I am here specifically to talk about the need and I know that you guys have addressed it about at-risk and homeless youth. I'm glad that she brought up college students, but not everybody is in college, so I am glad that she wants to focus on that. We're all focusing on different issues and it's great if I say anything tonight that might offend someone that's an adult homeless person. It's not meant to be. But I've had experience with people that I meet as president, Atlanta Democratic Club, and this one kid was 16 years old and was homeless from 16 to 19. He end up getting help in L.A., where he because they have a gay and lesbian center that has at risk homeless youth services. Prior to that, he was on the street from 16 to 18, basically staying warm.
Speaker 11: When people left Pismo Beach and the embers would.
Speaker 3: Be finished and he would leave his he would sleep there. But most of you guys know this story. The sad thing is, I've seen this over and over again, you know, every time I leave my home and these kids aren't in college. And I just. Know that it needs to be talked about.
Speaker 11: I'm not going to run it.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not an expert in any of this. It's just something I see all the time. And I keep water in my car and I talk to them and they get excited that there's a meeting tonight. I ran to a kid today and.
Speaker 11: Unfortunately his girlfriend.
Speaker 3: Slit her throat while in the street because she just couldn't handle anymore. We can still save these. And again, no respect for people that are older, that are homeless. But you drive down Broadway and you'll see a kid that's hanging out with a group of people that are clearly in their disease, and we can still save them . They need a place to go that they can be safe. They need to.
Speaker 11: Stop couch surfing, sleeping around on apps, count, you know, getting diseases. These are our kids and I would be happy to work with you in any way. Again, it's about creating dialog.
Speaker 3: And you guys gave us that opportunity tonight and that's a real warning is just the chance to speak. And thank you so much.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Mark. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: Thank you, mayor and council members for all in the study session. My name is Dale Neal.
Speaker 10: And I am the chair of the Homeless Services Advisory Commission.
Speaker 11: Representing Councilperson or Councilwoman Pierce. I am on the Continuum of Care Board and have been employed by the Long Beach Rescue Mission for the last ten years. Additionally, I am the former director of the Winter Shelter Program under LBM and I am formerly homeless. Please know that what I share with you here are my thoughts and does not represent the aforementioned organizations or committees. I will open with.
Speaker 10: What you already know, how it is moving away from funding supportive services and moving towards funding just permanent housing.
Speaker 11: This is rightfully so. Supportive services, in a nutshell, is all about outreach and teaching people how to live again out here with you and everyone else. Rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing and all that is good. But for many who are living with mental illness, chronically homeless, and those with addictions.
Speaker 6: Housing just isn't enough. It can sometimes.
Speaker 11: Take months or years working with someone to build up them and their trust to get them to come in. And then we need them to stay housed. So the support services are crucial in helping this to happen. It is up to our state and local governments, along with the people, to increase and improve those supportive services. So I urge you now to.
Speaker 10: Move in that direction so we can do what we've done with veteran homelessness in our great city.
Speaker 11: And announced functional zero for all who are experiencing homelessness. And I close also with.
Speaker 10: Because it was brought up a lot about the difference in the ages of homelessness. When I first went to the rescue mission a little over 11 years ago, the average age was 35 and up. And now we see a lot of 18 and 19 year olds. It has changed dramatically.
Speaker 6: Homelessness is not just the old men anymore.
Speaker 10: So we need to do something. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you for your work. Next, before we go to the next speaker, we have actually a lady that's at the top. She's going to speak actually next and then.
Speaker 11: She will go to you.
Speaker 3: Good evening.
Speaker 5: Most esteemed representatives. I am a Long Beach resident and a senior citizen. Many seniors are on fixed incomes and are defenseless against increases in the cost of living, including. I realize that you've heard.
Speaker 1: This all before.
Speaker 5: Take into consideration that there are even.
Speaker 1: Speculators and onto.
Speaker 5: Your nerves. I have elderly parents and they would not wish to put them in jeopardy. Yet little or no consideration is given. Those of us who faithfully pay loyally our rent well ahead of prescriptions, food, insurance, and etc. would you consider your present renters, many of whom have been residents for years, qualified to be grandfathered in? Lots of us are in our late sixties plus with no support from their families who may be far away. Others are infirm or not able to seek help or can not seek solutions on their own. Basically, I ask that you propose your elderly.
Speaker 1: Not.
Speaker 5: Be subjected to cruel rent increases and addictions. Rent increases.
Speaker 1: Are like a slap in the.
Speaker 5: Face to those with honorable, well-lived lives who have raised their families and are now short.
Speaker 1: Timers. Affordable housing and.
Speaker 5: Waiting lists for seniors are too long, where many can die while waiting for hopefully and hopefully not become homeless as they do not deserve. The prices of homes have gone up so much. Where many seniors only receive Social Security, which is most in most cases is considered poverty level. We need your help. Seniors need a degree of dignity and safety. Cordially yours, Irene. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker.
Speaker 4: Hello. My name is Jovana Ferraro, a business owner, resident downtown Long Beach. Thank you. Mayor Robert Kersee on council for having this discussion this evening. I just want to point out, first and foremost, the earlier conversation about.
Speaker 8: Weekends where there was areas where we couldn't.
Speaker 4: Connect people to resources. Also, the hotline idea of calling several different numbers.
Speaker 8: To potentially get.
Speaker 4: Someone to a resource which can be hard on weekends and late evenings on that especially is coming from the business side of the.
Speaker 1: Business owner side of me. We get that.
Speaker 12: A lot in our business association. And then on the lack of the connectivity sometimes among.
Speaker 4: Not just residents but especially.
Speaker 12: Or business owners to.
Speaker 1: Our.
Speaker 4: Folks experiencing homelessness and what we can offer them for assistance or and or any word of advice, especially in those late evenings and on weekends. What I want to say is.
Speaker 12: I really strongly urge.
Speaker 1: You to connect to people.
Speaker 4: Like me who are in the community, volunteering and really trying to spearhead something that we can do proactively to help. I'm looking at you guys because it's just.
Speaker 12: Three Shannon and on. But what we could really.
Speaker 4: Do to connect our business owners and residents that are really active in the community to be part of your cheerleaders out there. You need it. It's a very complex situation and we all know that. I'm urging you to get a hold of us and do the proper things that you think we need to know so that we can spearhead that education. There is a lack of education. You brought it up with people being bussed in. That is a myth by far. You don't see pictures of it, but people talk about it. Why? Because it doesn't exist. So what we need more is for you guys to really call people like Alison Crip and myself in who are not getting a paycheck from anyone to do this. We are strictly doing this based off our passion and we want your guidance and leadership to help you. So please continue to pull us in because you need cheerleaders out there. The community thinks the city is not doing anything. It's not that you're not doing anything. It's that you need help in what you're doing. Last, I'm going to leave with this. I'm so passionate about this, you guys. We developed a card to hand out homeless people, correct?
Speaker 1: It's got three, four resources on that card. I'm a.
Speaker 4: Fitness person. We have socks coming out that are called keep LPC fit and it has the resource card on it. The resource card is directly on this. This is to educate people who are not homeless about the services out there and to lend something which is very high a need which is socks. Winter is coming up to our homeless people.
Speaker 1: You buy a pair, we.
Speaker 4: Give a pair. Understood.
Speaker 0: Thank you. That's a great idea. You know that. Thank you for that. Next. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: I finally got my blessing to come up here because I have never do this a long time. I got to say hi to all the homeless people. That's all I'm concerned about. And you too. Oh, I can talk really fast, but.
Speaker 0: Wow, that's okay, sir. And put up the mike right up to you so.
Speaker 11: We can hear you. Thank you. First of all, this I've been I travel a lot, and I just love Grand Rapids. I was there six months doing the same thing. Oh, wow. I don't have a degree and none of this kind of stuff, but I got a degree in some other things that I do. First of all, homeless people is my number one passion. Well, I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for people that need something. Not the ones that don't want it. The ones that want it. I can't help the ones that don't want it. I'm not going to try to. I've been walking to Grand Rapids of Long Beach. I'm in Long Beach now for about six weeks. I can see the jobs out there for homeless people and it's called street cleaning, not the streets and the sidewalks. That's job creation that can people can do that. I do it. I do it for a place where I know I just got here. I'm getting paid to do that, too. So that's a that's a job that can be created to help people get at least get some better feeling for themselves. Oh, boy. Hmm. Okay, I. Was. I went to the homeless shelter when I first got here. And I did have some food that was not too good for my body. I looked at the date and it was like six weeks old. In Grand Rapids, I got something that was three years old. So you guys can figure that one out? Mm hmm. This is kind of interesting. Well, if you guys do give our housing to women here, I found that out throughout the places I've been going. You don't let the got the babies that go with them. That's breaking up the family as well. I know that for a fact. Oh, wow. I'm not nervous. I'm just very upset. That's what it is. I'm just very upset because of what I see here. I wasn't going to bring this up, but when I first got here, I had some problems with the police. I do this for a living. I your police force. Oh, my life is. This is what I do for my life. I'm not scared of nothing. No death and nothing. Because I got Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Rosa Park all in me. Okay. So I actually seen one of them one day and I ask them I had a black friend I had met on the street, but he was like really out of it. So I stopped one of them. I said, Can you help me? I'm trying to help this brother right here. Oh, yeah. They said, okay, yeah, we will go across the street. But guess what they did. They drove off. I'm done.
Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 5: Thank you. My name is Margaret Merlo, and I'm here tonight to thank our studio, Long Beach, for all of the support to help homeless women and children. I grew up in.
Speaker 4: A small Italian village in Mexico. I speak Spanish and Italian. I became homeless after a very abusive marriage.
Speaker 5: The abuse started just months after marry him.
Speaker 4: He broke my nose, bruised my skin. In 2005, after many years of physical and emotional abuse, I found.
Speaker 5: Help at inter a house at this very special place. I found straight courage. My life change after finding help for myself and my three kids. I knew I want to help others.
Speaker 4: Today I am a domestic violence counselor.
Speaker 8: And educator at.
Speaker 1: Interval.
Speaker 5: House and my kids are.
Speaker 4: Become wonderful.
Speaker 5: Leaders. Also today they are working at INTER, has a second generation team program.
Speaker 1: To educate youth.
Speaker 4: Kids dating, violence and healthy relationship. I'm very proud to be part of this amazing program and I am honored.
Speaker 5: And it's an honor to.
Speaker 1: Me to help other homeless woman who.
Speaker 5: Are suffering, like I once said. Thank you very much. Thank you for all the support. I was.
Speaker 4: Homeless and now.
Speaker 1: I'm really, really proud.
Speaker 4: To find this amazing program. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please. And. And without counsel. Objection. I'm going to move down to 2 minutes. Most people have actually been only going to about 2 minutes. So just about an hour and a half of of of folks that want to speak. I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak. So what are the two minute timer? But again, I think almost everyone has hit it around 2 minutes. So please.
Speaker 1: My name is insurer and I am originally from Jordan. I'm here tonight to say thank you to city council, to all the city support, supporting and of house effort to address the specialized needs of the most underserved homeless victims of domestic violence in need of shelters like I once made it. I was in an abusive relationship for 16 years. My husband was very violent man verbally, emotionally and physically. He would throw his burning cigarets in my face every time he got upset. When my husband tried to burn the house with me and our five children inside of it. I had the courage to leave. I knew I had I had to leave. But at the same time, I knew I would receive a lot of blame from his. From him and his family. The police brought me to Animal House. Animal House was the only shelter that spoke my language.
Speaker 11: And just said.
Speaker 1: My culture. They helped me feel comfortable. I went through a lot of counseling, training. And for me and my children today, I'm the Middle Eastern program director at Interval House, and we have over 250 advocates involved in our Salam program, which means peace in Arabic. I'm so proud to be a part of the community helping to solve the issue of homeless homelessness. For each, for those who need most, need it the most like I was before. Thank you very much.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 1: Good evening. My name is Diana. I am. First of all, I have to say, I am very grateful to the city of Long Beach for your continued support in helping to solve the issues of homelessness.
Speaker 12: Especially for the abused.
Speaker 1: Women and children who have nowhere else to go other than shelters, of course, like in our house. My family came to the U.S. in 1975 to escape the violence and war in Vietnam with the hopes of building a new, safe and violent free life here in America, especially here in the Long Beach community. However, that didn't happen. The stress and struggles to make ends meet, like most families, has been brought on a lot of stress for both my father and my family. My father became very angry and controlling, which led to the physical, verbal and emotional abuse towards my mother. I was just five years old when my father attempted to stab and kill my mother right here in the driveway of our Long Beach home. Fortunately for us, our neighbor heard my mother screaming and crying for help, which she risked her life to save us and also was able to contact Long Beach Police Department to come and help us that night. If it wasn't for the local Long Beach Police Department here in Long Beach, we probably wouldn't be alive. And I probably wouldn't be standing here today because during that time, a lot of the shelters they call wouldn't take us.
Speaker 5: In because my mom.
Speaker 1: Could not speak English. She only spoke Vietnamese. So with the help of Miami's PD took us to a house. And today I am proud to work as a DB advocate and trainer, working with our many victims of all ages, including the young teens, adolescents, and working to make sure that they have a safe and stable housing, and also to make sure that we offer them all of the comprehensive supportive services in order for them to become self-sufficient. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 12: Hi, Mr. Mayor. Mayor and council. Excuse me. Extremely nervous. This was very close to my heart. I was homeless for almost 13 years, seven of those years in Long Beach. I became homeless at 15 because my mom disowned me when I came out as lesbian. Continue to be homeless at the age of 29. So I experienced my teen years and my twenties living out of my car. Obviously the Department of Long Beach had you deal with me accordingly. Flipping my.
Speaker 4: Car is illegal.
Speaker 12: In Long Beach City. I did work a job. I had to sleep in my car, eat in my car, find somewhere to use the restroom in the morning and find somewhere to look like. I took a shower so I can have my job. Not a lot of places will let you use the bathroom. I know the community gets upset by homeless, defecating or urinating. Where else are they supposed to go? I currently have stomach problems from holding it for many years. Besides that, I did go through the resources through Long Beach City. Before. Excuse me. Erm. Multi-Service Center was redone before when it was. Beyond shelter. They actually got me off the street. They paid my first month's rent and half my second month's rent and my deposits for my utilities. It's extremely difficult to get housing when you have no rental history. You have no credit. You have horrible credit because you have long medical bills. I suffer from major depression and anxiety. I have an extensive, horrible, crappy credit. I don't know how I was able to get an apartment. I'm currently have a place for five years and I'm on the verge of being homeless again. Besides that, you're asking about the vouchers. The hotel vouchers. I know my terms almost, but I'm sorry. I have to say this. Waiting 18 years to talk to you guys, the hotel vouchers. I don't know if it's changed since then, but back in the day it was Greenleaf and the one off Anaheim and Temple. Not the best neighborhoods in the world. Very drug ridden. I was not a drug addict and I did have a dog. I still have my service dog honor. When I was first 15 and homeless, I took a one way ticket to Maui. I figured I'd be warm and I could catch fish. As a teenager. It's extremely scary. You fear for being raped, your fear of being kidnaped. You fear of the sex trade. At 34 years old. I'm exhausted. I spent most of my life being homeless and surviving. Not only do you have to help these people get a home, they have to be integrated back into society. They've been ostracized. They've been judged. They've been treated inhumanely. It takes an effect on you for the rest of your life. And then you expect me to just go get a job, try for a weekend, to not take a shit, not take a shower and go get a job somewhere. The job economy sucks as it is. I never graduated high school. I'm on permanent disability, living off $889 a month. My rent's 875. I'm currently $500 short my rent this month. I have a homeless veteran with two brain tumors who's already had brain surgery, sleeping on my couch for three months. His voucher voucher is going to expire in six days. Where is he going to go? Where am I going to go? He's 64 years old and a veteran. My good friend, if I didn't give him a couch to stay on, where would he be? I had his studio when Rapid Rehousing got me. You know how many people live there? Nine. A veteran from Afghanistan. His wife. Her daughter, my friend. And her mother. I had bunk beds in my studio. I have a plan. It's almost exact. So the presentation that you gave tonight. Literally verbatim what you presented tonight that I've been preparing for 18 years. I have a huge plan and I could give you guys to help. I don't have enough time to explain what it is tonight. I'll email it to you if you'd like. It's long, but it would work. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. And well. And we're happy that we're happy. We'd love to see your plan and please make sure that we get copies of that. And the clerk will be happy to take if you want to leave your plan tonight or email us and we'll we're happy to take that. So thank you so much. Nick, thank you, sir, very much. Thank you, sir. Next speaker.
Speaker 11: I'm not going to say that this premier took. Yes. My name is Joe Myers. I'm a homeless veteran. I'm that way because my landlady. One of the ways around and my voucher would be wouldn't cover it so well was what you were saying about raising the voucher limit. Would would be would have been very helpful. But I'm too late for that. So what I do is I go to the housing authority and I agree, get this. But you get these things like rezoning, like for a one bedroom, you know, there's only one or two. There's four things on there. But you look at them every month, they're the same ones, the same addresses, the same people. They don't change them. You know, this housing authority, I don't know what they're doing would work, but it's a shame that they get. Six 2443 six 2622 same ones. I don't know what they're doing, but they're not they're not changing anything. I mean, that same repetition. The housing authority is now not being very helpful.
Speaker 0: Sir. Parliamentary say first of all, sir, thank you for your service to our country. And sir. First of all, thank you for your service to our country. Absolutely. And. We're going to we're going to have someone over here chat with you for a second to see if we can get you some some assistance. So, Mr. West, can you get somebody over here, please? So just can you just come over here? Okay. Thank you, sir. Just. Just come right down this way. Over here, sir.
Speaker 6: Alison King will take care of you. She's the director of our housing authority.
Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Next. Next speaker. Thank you, Mr. Rivera, Counsel. I'm going to go through.
Speaker 11: This pretty fast. I have a bunch of notes here.
Speaker 0: It's going to sound like it's.
Speaker 11: Not homelessness, but it is, because I.
Speaker 0: See the bigger picture.
Speaker 11: So I want the council to recognize that the new development along Ocean has contributed to increasing rental prices for existing rental prices in the immediate area, which has had a ripple effect in the surrounding area. I recognize that some of the new development on Ocean Avenue that units are up to 33,000 a month, which is causing a ripple effect.
Speaker 0: Around the surrounding geographical area.
Speaker 11: Existing lower cost rental units, which has seen rental prices increase, has not simply seen improvements in existing rental units or rental.
Speaker 0: Property to justify rental price increases. Affordable housing needs to be an establish on all city council districts. Affordable housing needs to be in healthy urban surroundings, not along corridors that contain high levels.
Speaker 11: Of air pollution such as Cabrillo. Of affordable housing needs to have access to sources of healthy foods and financial services that are walkable distances. Affordable housing must be.
Speaker 0: Comfortably placed along.
Speaker 11: Transit services. City transit services needs to be needs.
Speaker 0: Community input, and must make.
Speaker 11: Medians available at.
Speaker 0: Times and locations which the public may attend. The meetings for the Community Transit Services needs to be in the early in the morning or evening, and I suggest once per quarter in.
Speaker 11: Evening for community input.
Speaker 0: Affordable housing also equals workforce development. The City of Long Beach needs to recognize that the career transition center is not adequately serving those who six services citizens of Long Beach should become displaced workers or less. Skilled workers.
Speaker 11: Seeking to improve their skills needs to rely on the.
Speaker 0: Career Transition Center to meet these needs. The Transition Center needs to create a strategic plan.
Speaker 11: To ensure citizens of Long Beach.
Speaker 0: Are ready to move forward to provide skilled workers in an economy that is becoming more green, more technology based and service oriented. New technology means new jobs. However, jobs, space and new technology does not mean existing skills will be used with new jobs. New technology means new computer programs means a learning curve for existing workers, a worker seeking to an end to enter a new technology workforce. He's going to wrap it up, sir.
Speaker 11: Oh, sorry about that. Okay. I actually emailed this to city clerk. Okay. So you guys can read it about. I want to hand it to her.
Speaker 0: Thanks. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 1: Good evening. Near Garcia City Council and our city staff. That was a good report. Thank you. I'm Arleen Mercer.
Speaker 5: And I'm active with three organizations here in Long Beach.
Speaker 1: First of all, I started Food Finders. I am the founder of Food Finders, the Monterey Regional Food Bank. And as most of you know, thank you very much, know that what we do there is try to take excess food to 300 nonprofit agencies where the food will be utilized instead of wasted. The second organization is Urban Community Outreach, and we're celebrating our 10th anniversary this year. Suzi Christ mentioned us. That's Uco for short. That's who urban community outreach is and was also mentioned. There are not enough services on the weekend and that's why we are open every Sunday from 1232 for its intake day. And about 300 people come to us every Sunday because we make hot, nutritious meals that they like. Well, that's a good way to draw them in. I filled their stomach, but then we try to work with them to lift them out of the poverty and the homelessness. 75% of the people who come to us are homeless, and we have families, individuals, seniors, veterans, everyone. Well, how do we help them and how do we work with them? We interview them one on one. Those who are ready to talk to see about a way that they could rise out of their condition.
Speaker 5: And then we.
Speaker 1: Work with them, we help them set goals, and then we help them with the steps it will take to reach those goals. And most times, our goal is to be, you know, in a nice, stable condition and in a home. So we help them with our computer lab building job skills, and we help them with free childcare with our partner agencies. We partner with a lot of agencies in Long Beach. When they have free childcare, they can work. When they have a resume, they can go out and look for that job with transportation also so they can get to interviews. We help them with motel vouchers, very coveted motel vouchers. If they are working with us and trying to improve their life, we will give the families motel vouchers. Absolutely. We're very proud to announce another thing, if I may.
Speaker 4: Yes, you.
Speaker 0: Can. Absolutely you can.
Speaker 1: There is another need in Long Beach that's been mentioned tonight. We have doctors and nurses now that come and address their medical issues, but mental health issues and addictions, we knew were much more attention needed in those areas. So we have just been. Awarded Samsung Grant a federal grant. That means there will be three more outreach workers hired. They will be able to see psychiatrists which will come through our partner less inaccurate clinic. They also will be with our other partner for a 90 day bridge program for addictions. And then beyond that, Housing Authority has awarded us 25 vouchers annually. And if we can just work successfully now with the landlords to get them into permanent housing. So we all need to work together the only way we're going to help the folks that need us. Thank you so much.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much for your work. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Counsel Thank you for having me. My name is Alison Crisp. First of all, I want to say thank you to those in our audience that are struggling with homelessness.
Speaker 1: And any other issues. I've never been.
Speaker 4: Homeless. I am a volunteer with our community. Like many of us know, I also want to say really quick, I'm also here representing my friend Josh, who is definitely here with us in spirit. He would be here as a very dedicated soldier for this issue as well.
Speaker 1: So thank you. Those that are here.
Speaker 4: It's brave for you guys to share your stories on a regular basis with just us that are learning about that have never gone what you've gone through. And that's what I've done. Like what Joe mentioned, I'm not paid to do this. I represent Beacon for him right now and many other organizations that I've learned so much from.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, everybody. Lucy Hayes in the audience and Candace Face, Maya.
Speaker 4: And everybody that has allowed me to be on their.
Speaker 1: Journey. I won't talk too much.
Speaker 4: Just have a minute. I'm here representing Beacon for him. And a lot of the things the other night we have, which is 439 Anaheim Street food, if you're on if anybody needs food, come there on Mondays. We have lots of food. And just like a Yuko, like First Congregational, I asked them questions last Monday. I think a lot of the questions, a lot of the answers for some of our residents are our clients that were there is is we need more showers. We need help with Section eight housing. A couple of the ones that really stood out to me were that we need rides. And I know that Councilman Pierce mentioned this. I was ready if we can all work together in all these organizations to get rides. I worked personally with one person just at my very beginning stages of this whole thing and helped her go from housing authority to Multi-Service Center to different places where she needed to get her storage, which is all the way from Bixby Knolls. That would be great, and I don't know how we could do it, but that's just my biggest suggestion. I appreciate you guys. Also a big, big proponent, the LGBTQ, LGBTQ community, for those that are suffering, if not suffering that are trans, where they can use the restrooms and how they can sleep. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 7: Good evening, honorable mayor, city, city official and all council member. My name is Kyle Song and I'm an active member of the Cambodian community. I'd like to thank all of you for allowing me to be a part of this discussion and also like to thanks, folks. Many of you who are homeless and are here this evening to share your story. Now, it was a few months ago that I had an opportunity to attend the meeting with. The first councilman for district. Councilman Supernova that when I realized that homelessness is a serious, serious issue, ladies and gentlemen, homelessness in a central area are on the rise. Among those population are the elderly Cambodians. That. That was since before. And I want to make it short. I want to thank Mayor Garcia, who calls upon me, asking me to be here. And I'm glad that I did. So tonight, I offer my help. Theresa, you can have my call, and I will call you. Or you could call me. My phone number is 562444506989. Call me anytime. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Charles. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: My name is Stefan Dawson. So I am a second district resident. The problem of homelessness is actually kind of a rather simple one if you're looking at the original causes. One is a lack of affordable housing caused by speculative real estate market, especially within the downtown area, prompted by a overdevelopment of high rise, very expensive condos. And the second cause of it, of course, is that we're gonna be looking at as a statutory one. We have a lack of a form of affirmative rights for the homeless. What I mean by this is that they are presently existing within the municipal code for Long Beach, several completely on constitutional provisions that deprive homeless people of their First Amendment rights in terms of of criminalizing their ability to solicit donations. Their Fifth Amendment rights. The random, the random and completely unjustifiable gathering up of their belongings and the destruction thereof. And again, another first memory with their ability to sleep within certain certain areas. All of these are presently within the invisible code and are enforced on a daily basis in a discriminatory manner against the homeless. This is not a idle problem. The city of Los Angeles has been sued on three successive occasions, going up to the Supreme Court and being and being affirmed by the Ninth Circuit. Ninth Circuit, 11 versus the City of L.A. Jones versus city a city of L.A. and Desert Train versus the city of L.A.. All those are active cases and will be used as precedent against us. One of these days, if we maintain these laws, the second the second issue of affordable housing is one that we are all very well aware of, but again, is not being properly supported. This will cause people this will cause Long Beach to be a less diverse place, both racially and in terms of our economic ability and will lead to more deaths. What I mean by that is ask our fire department about how many converted houses and that they're finding out now who they're discovering on a daily basis. How many people, as our friends discussed earlier, are living in nine or ten people within a studio apartment or in a back house? This is not habitable conditions, and this can be fixed by affirmative legislation, by this by the council. They can never get to.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Members of the city council. My name is Craig.
Speaker 10: Cogen with the DBA, and I want to thank the mayor and the City Council for placing this item on the agenda for an open discussion. I also like to thank Kelly and Theresa for their excellent presentation, as well as all the community partners who have engaged and.
Speaker 11: Participating in addressing this issue. I certainly want to express my.
Speaker 10: Thanks to our organization, its leadership, and individuals such as Steve Picard, our community.
Speaker 11: Outreach manager.
Speaker 10: Who works diligently with different organizations and community outreach and working with addressing the homelessness. Antoinette Hamilton and Steve Branch, who work as homeless outreach specialists seven.
Speaker 11: Days a week. We also have.
Speaker 10: A great group of volunteers as you met Gio and certainly Alisyn.
Speaker 11: Tonight, and Michelle Molina, who. Have have really dedicated themselves and.
Speaker 10: Committed their efforts towards addressing this issue with their public safety and certainly the quality of life. This is the the elephant in the room that people don't like to talk about. And the face of homelessness does not have an age, does not have a race, does not have a gender.
Speaker 11: And it's about time that.
Speaker 10: We have this.
Speaker 11: Open discussion to discuss.
Speaker 10: Exactly how we're going to address it.
Speaker 11: I believe our.
Speaker 10: Organization will continue to engage.
Speaker 11: To educate, to inform.
Speaker 10: And inspire others. And you ask for volunteers and you ask for our commitment. We we are committed to continue our efforts to bring you our resources and collaborate on an ongoing basis. So whatever you need, our organization's there to help. Thank you very much.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Craig. And thank you to all the debate team mates here for their all their work on this as well. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 5: Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Dr. Lisa Nicholas. I'm a pediatrician and the CEO of the Children's Clinic serving children and their families.
Speaker 5: I want to thank you very much, Mayor and Council, for bringing this issue. Kelly and Theresa.
Speaker 1: Superb presentation. We are very.
Speaker 5: Very proud to and honored to be working with the city and the century villages of Cabrillo and the Multi-Service Center to provide health.
Speaker 1: Care to the homeless. We also see thousands and thousands of patients, 40,000 patients in total of low income families. In our clinics.
Speaker 5: We have hundreds of families that are.
Speaker 1: Homeless but also that are on the edge of homeless. And many times.
Speaker 5: They are crowded, living in apartments, in studios, in garages, and they're victims of domestic violence. But they can't.
Speaker 1: Leave because they cannot get housing. Our social workers work diligently.
Speaker 5: And we appreciate all the help and all that you're doing and we're here to partner with.
Speaker 1: You. I think we don't realize how many of the homeless are young women with children many times who are a victim of violence.
Speaker 5: And we had recently.
Speaker 4: A six month.
Speaker 1: Old that was living with her parents. Their car was.
Speaker 4: Totaled so.
Speaker 5: They couldn't live in their car.
Speaker 1: And they were living on the street. And if we want our children to be successful and not and to graduate.
Speaker 5: From school and to have successful lives.
Speaker 1: We have to help them with homelessness. We have to help them with food insecurity. We have.
Speaker 5: To address the violence that has occurred in the parents.
Speaker 1: Lives in the past, help them deal with that and help our children really succeed. So we are here to partner with you. I thank you.
Speaker 5: And we'll do whatever we can. And our partnerships with the.
Speaker 1: Housing folks in town, we have a site at century villages of Cabrillo and are.
Speaker 4: In the multi-service center.
Speaker 1: And we want to continue.
Speaker 5: That kind of work and.
Speaker 1: We need quality housing for our families. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 1: Good evening. Thank you, Mayor Garcia. And council people.
Speaker 5: Uh, Lena, I am. My name is Ansar Rock, and I live in the first district.
Speaker 1: I am here to ask you what you are planning to do.
Speaker 5: When you close Lincoln Park. What is your strategy in getting these people help? How are you going to redirect them? And what area and how are you going to help them out? Second, I want to tell you that the people we come in contact that we have problems with in the first District that affect us are the mentally ill and the drug.
Speaker 1: Addicts, for instance, we find needles in our park and kids.
Speaker 5: Cannot play until we really clean them.
Speaker 1: Second.
Speaker 5: We have these people that are mentally ill, are unapproachable, some of them are violent, and some of them, you know, we cannot go up to them and try to help them. Also, I'd like to know how many quality of life officers you have. For our our city, because I have been in a situation where I had called and they told me at the police department that until they.
Speaker 1: Finished taking care of.
Speaker 5: All the emergencies, they couldn't come down. And so we waited 20 minutes and no one ever showed up. So I'm wondering if those quality of life officers.
Speaker 1: Have been increased for our area or for the city? As a matter of fact. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. What we'll do is I know we'll make sure we get you the information. And some of that was I know we went over it in the presentation, but there's a lot more that we can get you. So we'll make sure we connect you with the exact plan, particularly for Linkin Park and around that. So maybe Councilman Gonzales can send that over.
Speaker 4: Yes. And we'll have Corey connect with you. We're working on a meeting actually with Geo, our neighbor here. So we'll connect you with that.
Speaker 0: Next week or please.
Speaker 7: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Gary Sheldon's my name is one block north of where I'm standing right now. And so it's a pleasure to greet you all this evening and a little bit of my own creds. People have been giving their credit this evening. I served for two terms as the chairman of the Homeless Services Advisory Commission back in my day, and I also sat with my sister, Janet Rhodes, as we tried to figure out how to phrase and how to how to put together. The drop in center at First Congregational Church has been mentioned several times. She was the founder of it. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, right now. Janet Rhoads The two years that I spend on Homeless Services Advisory Commission were like beating my head against the wall of the dais here. Frankly, we had a completely different council back then. We had a different mayor. We had a mayor at one time who would walk out of the room whenever homelessness was being discussed back behind the rail there. I want to praise Mayor Garcia once more in public, like I've done any number of times. You're the first Mayor, Robert, in memory who has even mentioned poverty or homelessness in all of your speeches, your inaugural speech, your wonder days, your one year, year to year. We really, really support you on that. And I believe that that's why we're here right now. I wanted to direct thank you. I wanted to direct your attention to two things that the council has in its purview that it can fix is get their development services people to actually comply with SB two, which is the by right placement of homeless shelters, which right now does not comply with the state law. The same thing with the placement of SRO housing, which for the first time in anybody's memory, we have an ordinance for SRO housing and I just want to leave it. The reason they don't comply is there's no available as our OSE or or SB two sightings. They're not adequate and they're not accessible. So those are the things that you can do. And I want to say that you have us, the members of the public, we have your back on this thing, forge forward with it, and you've got the power to make it happen. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you for your work. Your next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: Good evening, Mayor Garcia and councilmembers. My name is Paul Collins. I'm an architect over in the West Side and the chairman of the West PAC here. I'm mostly representing myself tonight as an architect. I'd be glad to donate some of my architectural services and get together with some other architects. Long Beach has a lot of really fine architectural firms, and architects are expensive, and I donate some time to work with the homeless center if they come up with projects where they can improve existing buildings. Because most of my work is improving existing buildings or industry, but I work on a lot of housing projects as well, and I'd be glad to donate some of my time to help them and find some other architects that we could work together and possibly get some contractors and some developers to kick in some free services too, because all this cost a lot of money and I want to give back to my community. I grew up in Long Beach, so I'd love to help out homeless people. I was lucky enough to grow up in Eldorado Park Estates, which is one of the gems of the city. And now I work in the West Side, which is the money driver, the city, and has some serious homeless problems. The problems we have in the West Side are mostly the mentally ill and the drug abuse and homeless people. And it's a very serious problem for the industrial businesses because at night we leave most, most of the business. So those aren't 24 hours. And in our neighborhoods, we have a serious problem with RV's that have people in living in them that are mentally ill. And we and they know the laws very well and they they park for three days and then they move. And they've been creating serious problems for businesses there. And we need some real help with these people because they don't really want to help. They want to just be left alone. But they are causing a lot of serious problems. We've we've sent letters, Darlene, and I'm sure she'll share all that information with you. And I think they're the hardest part of the homeless problem is the people that have mental illnesses and drug and alcohol problems, because a lot of them don't want help or they don't know how to get it or how to use it. And it's just like every other population in our whole society, 95% of us are great people and there's 5% that caused the problem that make a lot of people hate that whole group. And it's really sad because most homeless people aren't there by choice, but they're there by some really bad circumstances and we need to help them out. But we also need to protect the businesses that are driving the city and we need to protect the homeless of Long Beach as well. Thank you very much.
Speaker 0: Absolutely. Next speaker.
Speaker 11: Please.
Speaker 4: Good evening, Council Mayor. My name is Yeji Kayla Watts. I've been a Long Beach resident almost on and off for ten years. I'm a full time behavior therapist and also the founder of Hearts Zoo Development. But I'm also a single mother struggling paycheck to paycheck, trying to raise my daughter in a safe and crime free city. In the past, I have houses for homeless children under the age of six.
Speaker 1: While their father.
Speaker 4: Transitioned from prison and their mother.
Speaker 5: Battled addiction.
Speaker 4: I have housed a young woman battling drug induced schizophrenia. Held the hand of a man. I named Mr. Butler, who died.
Speaker 1: Without dignity, sleeping in a public park.
Speaker 4: I've laughed and I've.
Speaker 5: Cried.
Speaker 1: With a disabled veteran who was killed.
Speaker 4: In broad daylight over.
Speaker 5: A bottle of vodka. I have watched a chronically ill elderly man left to die without.
Speaker 1: A name and all of these cases. They suffered from mental illness. Homelessness is.
Speaker 4: Now personal to me.
Speaker 1: And we have to do more. I am very thankful for tonight to learn and to observe and to see where we are in terms of.
Speaker 5: Tackling this issue of homelessness.
Speaker 1: Homelessness. Though some progress has been made, particularly with veterans, I would like to see the city.
Speaker 5: Prioritize the rest of the homeless population.
Speaker 1: And those at risk with its.
Speaker 4: Unbalanced budgets. While hundreds of millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: Are being invested into infrastructure.
Speaker 5: The city should not have to rely on nonprofit.
Speaker 1: And private organizations to meet basic.
Speaker 5: Human needs. We need to address this multifaceted issue.
Speaker 1: Yes, we need bleeding heart organizations, but what we need more.
Speaker 5: Are tangible.
Speaker 1: Solutions. Providing food and shelter is necessary, but it is also a reactive strategy to a.
Speaker 4: Problem that needs to be addressed.
Speaker 1: Proactively. I would love this city. My city. To pride itself not only on its diversity, but in prioritizing its people.
Speaker 5: Over its profit.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Council and mayor. My name is Nicole Reese. I work for a local arts nonprofit that we address social issues in Long Beach, using art as a vehicle for awareness and solution. Now, when I moved to language, it was entirely because of the art scene. Council members I've witnessed how you were always there to cheer on Long Beach artists. You are different from other council members in other cities because you actively support the arts. And living in Long Beach makes me grateful for that special reason. We're here tonight to speak on the city's ten year plan of homelessness. You will agree that homelessness is a larger problem than just providing housing and as much greater costs. These costs appear in the cleanups in the 47% spent on law enforcement and the 2.4 million spent on the New South Police Division numbers released in your newest budget. These are necessary programs. I'm glad.
Speaker 1: That you're prioritizing.
Speaker 4: Public safety, and I appreciate our quality of life officers. But I believe by favoring civic authority, you are overlooking public connection. Consider the extensive efforts of activate uptown development of areas like the pike and beautification of downtown infrastructure. These otherwise amazing projects could make it unaffordable for residents to continue living in those neighborhoods. These projects imply that money is being spent installing murals onto walls, then installing people's and people into homes. Long Beach would like you to spend more time thinking about the fact that many of your artists and students are struggling to pay rent , CouchSurfing or even homeless. A lot of what makes the city beautiful comes from the people who can't afford to live here. Displacement is pushing more residents onto the streets, and measures in place to stop this are painfully few. The systemic issues that cause displacement exist in the policy world. Renters rights, inclusionary zoning, lawful eviction and a number of affordable housing units that accurately reflects the number of people in need. These are basic protections. Right now, gentrification is eating away at their ability to live in Long Beach without living in fear. You will lose the diversity and you will lose Long Beach along with it. A support program for those who are suffering in, on the brink of or recovering from homelessness could appear as an artistic junction if housing organizations exchanged board.
Speaker 1: And health services for the empowered.
Speaker 4: Labor of its low income residents. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Guys. Wrap it up.
Speaker 3: Go ahead.
Speaker 4: Educate a user, renovate and activate the buildings. Then a low income housing building and other shelters could be an improvement.
Speaker 1: In a neighborhood, not an incubator, an incubator for perpetuated homelessness.
Speaker 4: And I'm willing to commit to creating this resource.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Thank you. And I'm going to. I know we still have a lot of folks that are in line and some that are not in line to speak still. So I want to make sure we just try to take the 2 minutes. I know it's hard to appreciate everyone's patience.
Speaker 11: Good evening, Mayor. City Council staff. My name is Brian D'Andrea. I'm with Century Housing. I'm also on the continuum of care board here locally and sit on the Mayor's Study Group for affordable housing and workforce housing. Thank you for convening Tonight Session. It's been a really incredible dialog. I've learned a lot centuries of the nonprofit manager, developer and steward of the villages that Cabrillo, together with a number of other wonderful organizations out in West Long Beach. We've been a long time partner of the city in addressing the needs of our homeless. Clearly, the needs are great. The issue of homelessness has become more visible and has really captured the public's attention, and rightfully so. Many of us in this room have been working on this issue for many, many years. And as has as has been shared tonight, the city has achieved a number of really remarkable successes over the years , to name just a few, a reduction of unsheltered homelessness between the last two homeless counts, achieving UFA status for a continuum of care, being on the cusp of ending veteran homelessness, new permanent supportive housing developments like Anchor Place and others to name just a few. Those successes don't happen on their own. They require leadership, diligence and compassion on the part of city staff, elected officials and the community. I want to take a moment to highlight a couple of conditions which I think have contributed to the successes. First, this commitment tonight session is a really great testimony to local commitment, both within the public and private sector to addressing the needs of our homeless. We also benefit from strong citizen leadership on boards like the Homeless Services Advisory Committee and the Continuum of Care Coordination. We have a highly coordinated system with our own health department, a dedicated multi-service center control. We also have a dedicated continuum of care funding. Unlike LaSalle, which services 85 different cities throughout Southern California, we have our own continuum of care, funding and concentration. The city has really dedicated resources in a number of key ways that have led to economies of scale and strong linkages. I encourage everyone to please think about this issue as as really being as homeless, as being a symptom and not being the direct problem. The problem is a deeper human problem. And to solve that problem, we really need to think about investing in the support of services needing to it needed to address the symptom. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 10: Good evening. My name is Vincent to Mia. Thank you, Mayor, for hosting this. Amazing Pandora's box that you've opened. Briefly just to state in a sentence why I appreciate what you do. My father was an assistant city clerk for 30 years in Columbus, Ohio. That should tell you everything about me. About me personally. I've been working in homeless ministry for 30 years. I've lived in L.A. for 21 years. I've lived in Long Beach for nine years with my wife. We're both business owners. We are a.
Speaker 11: Florist. We had a business on.
Speaker 10: Broadway and a Bespoke for two years where we dealt with a lot of interfacing with homeless people. I have personally never spent less than an hour with every homeless person I've ever encountered.
Speaker 11: I'm not trying to pat myself.
Speaker 10: On the back. I'm trying to tell you that I have a wealth of information and I'm begging.
Speaker 11: You to provide. Make a provision.
Speaker 10: For more of what you're hearing here tonight. What's missing for me are resources. I said for years. For decades. We need a multi-service center. Thank God we have one. How long did that take? You know, and our our police are so.
Speaker 11: Understaffed with what I have.
Speaker 10: Experienced with the police department, is what I was told by an officer who I won't.
Speaker 11: Mention by name in my district too. I live in downtown core on Linden.
Speaker 10: Between Broadway and East Third that there is the letter of the law in the spirit of the law. I have an issue with that. Which is it?
Speaker 11: I understand we're working on a bare bones, but the quality of life does not.
Speaker 10: Just apply to.
Speaker 11: Homeless people. It applies.
Speaker 10: To the residents who live here and the businesses who are operating here, who are being affected.
Speaker 11: By the homelessness. I feel sorry for developers, but I also feel sorry for residents.
Speaker 10: Because the city is not holding landlords, slumlords and property management companies to accountability.
Speaker 11: How many years has this city council been told.
Speaker 10: That there are.
Speaker 11: Substandard conditions in living?
Speaker 10: You want to talk about prevention? Kelly I applaud your report. Teresa, I welcome you long awaited. But seriously, we need resources.
Speaker 11: Because we don't have them. We don't have because we don't have an actual building. The the MHRA wanted a building.
Speaker 10: Over off of Anaheim. I think it was this multistory unit that they had and then it was taken away from them. It belongs to a family in Texas. It's sitting there empty.
Speaker 11: I hear we need resources.
Speaker 10: So here's my few solutions for you right now. We've got to make it.
Speaker 0: We've got to make rent control.
Speaker 10: I mean, give.
Speaker 11: You just five.
Speaker 10: Rent control.
Speaker 0: Quickly, though. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.
Speaker 11: How about some public restrooms? Nobody's mentioned it. How about some case? Watch a community case. Watch where we can all log into a central.
Speaker 10: Location and talk about here is this homeless person that we've been dealing with for five, ten, 20 years. We already know their story. We already helped them. This is why nothing's happening with them. You have it in case watch in social services. Why don't you have it at a community level?
Speaker 11: And lastly, I would just say.
Speaker 10: Please, for God's sakes, would you make a mandate for locking dumpsters and recycle bins?
Speaker 11: Please. Especially in the downtown core businesses, it should be mandated.
Speaker 10: That locking dumpsters and locking recycle bins, those recycle bins, it's a misdemeanor if you steal out of them. Yet we're enabling our homeless people by providing them a place where they can come and get recyclables and cash it in for alcohol.
Speaker 11: I mean, come on.
Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Next speaker. And just as I'm going to have to I know I've been a little I'm trying to be flexible with the time. But again, we have still probably an hour of public comment. And so I want to make sure that just the 2 minutes we'll try to keep the flow as best possible. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council.
Speaker 9: Thank you for having this session tonight.
Speaker 4: My name is Suni Lee Chang. I'm executive vice president at Link Housing.
Speaker 1: We are an affordable.
Speaker 4: Housing developer based here in Long Beach, just five blocks.
Speaker 9: Away.
Speaker 1: And we build housing statewide. We've built 7500 units over our 32 year existence, and we also build permanent supportive housing. What that means is we build housing for the homeless with permanent wraparound services.
Speaker 9: And that is.
Speaker 1: If we talk about solutions to this problem, long term solutions that can be multiplied over years. That's what we're talking about. And as we've heard through personal stories and through statistics tonight, this is a tremendous challenge.
Speaker 5: We are all facing.
Speaker 9: And it requires.
Speaker 1: Us all to be creative.
Speaker 9: And.
Speaker 4: Resourceful. And so I will.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 5: We have a project that we've partnered with the city on with before in the fourth District. It's the Palace Hotel.
Speaker 1: It provides 14 units for transitional age youth who youth who are homeless. There are ways.
Speaker 5: That we could continue to do this. We heard the vice mayor talk about motels.
Speaker 1: There's a possibility.
Speaker 4: Of converting those into permanent units where you could use.
Speaker 1: Permanent vouchers, not just hotel vouchers. There is the ability to leverage additional resources that are available. The state has just passed a bill that authorizes $2 billion for homelessness. 350 million of that is coming to Los Angeles County. It's called No Place Like Home. The Department of Health Services at the county will help provide wraparound services. We heard questions about that. And really, I think a big part of thinking about the solution is it truly does require a collaborative effort. Who benefits from this? Aside from the individuals, it's really thinking about financially. Who can you get to the table to help pay for this? Right.
Speaker 9: Hospitals benefit, the city benefits fire police.
Speaker 5: What could.
Speaker 1: Happen if you could start.
Speaker 5: Pulling everybody together and thinking about this collaboratively.
Speaker 1: Could you put dollars in? Could you use public safety dollars? It's something to really consider.
Speaker 4: And link housing is here and we're ready to help. Thanks.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Mayor. And thank you, city council for having this forum. My name is Eric.
Speaker 11: Crowe, and I live in Alamitos Bay, part of Long Beach by the park pantry. The one thing that I feel from this.
Speaker 3: Meeting more than anything else.
Speaker 11: Two things, actually, is a.
Speaker 3: Sense of hope. And I feel humbled. I had no idea that all of this was being done around me. And I'm so grateful that I came here tonight to this meeting. I'm so grateful you invited me.
Speaker 11: I've been pretty much in just about every at risk group that.
Speaker 3: There has been in tonight, whether from substance abuse, from domestic violence. Being on a fixed income.
Speaker 11: And living in an SRO, although in another city. And so I heard my I heard.
Speaker 3: My story so many times.
Speaker 11: And I wanted to also say I wanted to also say how glad.
Speaker 3: I was to hear LGBTQ.
Speaker 11: Issues mentioned. And in particular, what's become what I think is my calling is homeless, homeless, high school and college students. I think a.
Speaker 3: Lot of people read the same article about the Cal State student that was a.
Speaker 11: Graduate, that was a candidate for a Ph.D. that was living out of his car. And. That was that that that really touched me as a as a person who's about to graduate.
Speaker 3: With a B with a degree in social and behavioral sciences. That is very much the place that I want to direct my energies. And I think that I'm in the right place to do it. And what I think I want more than anything else is a direction. So I say to the people that.
Speaker 11: That put together this beautiful report tonight, point me in that direction.
Speaker 3: I'm ready to go. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: Good evening, Dr. Garcia, members of the city council. My name is Dave Pilon. I'm the president and CEO of Mental Health America of Los Angeles. I want to echo the prior speaker. I feel a great sense of hope tonight as well, not only because of the great presentation that Kelly and Teresa did, but just the the way that you're addressing this issue creates a lot of hope in me having been involved in these kinds of discussions for the better part of two decades. I have to tell you that the compassion and sensitivity that you're addressing this issue with is very impressive, and you're all to be commended for that. And I appreciate that, that aspect of this. I want to just use the remainder of my limited time just to address some of the issues that were brought up tonight. First of all, tomorrow, Mr. Anthony. Sorry, Anthony Rendon, the speaker of the California Assembly Assembly, is coming to my MHC Village program over at 15. An album he authored the No Place Like Home Bill that's going to create about $2 billion in support of housing here in the state of California. And he's coming because he wants to know sort of like what are the supportive services that should be offered, the wraparound to those kinds of those kinds of housing. And Councilmember Pierce, you were asking, you know, what what about wraparound for other sorts of housing as well? You know, there are some funds available. The County of Los Angeles funds my program to provide services to people with severe and persistent mental illnesses. We cannot find enough housing for them, but we would be happy to provide the wraparound services for the folks living in those in those housing units kind of thing. So if you can create the housing, we can provide the services at least to some parts of that. Councilmember Price, you also asked about the lack of substance use services. There is absolutely a dearth of those services. And but the good news is on the horizon is that CMS has given California a waiver to increase Medi-Cal drug services. And so effective probably July 1st of next year, there will be many more services for substance use disorders available to the low income population. My own agency will be providing those services. I know nine months is a long time to wait, but there is help on the horizon with that. I'm sorry, that's all the time.
Speaker 0: But thank you so much for all. You know, M.J., as you guys know, as you know, it is amazing work. So I know that we're continuing to partner on the facility as well that were building in central Long Beach. So. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.
Speaker 11: Please. Hi, my name is Steven Leary. I'm also involved with urban community outreach. As I mentioned earlier, I volunteer for the drop in center downtown at Uco and I've actually lived in Long Beach since 2008 and have seen the homeless situation through many of its ups and downs. I have been volunteering for over a year and have made it my personal mission to develop countless community partners and involve city council in the mix from the start. And in doing this, my focus was always on the good things my organization was doing and others like it to deal with the homeless problem in our city. This involves not just feeding the homeless, but providing services to get them off the streets and on to a more productive life. Talking about city council. I personally want to thank both Ginny Pierce, who the minute I mentioned the situation about the homeless to her, she had organized a day of service for the homeless immediately. And of course, Susie Price. Susie Price. Susie Price. What I would also like to do now is, again, thank both of you for making your part of your agenda from the very beginning. Now, I was recently at one of Susie's community meetings, and I was actually a little upset about the way I thought that that that Susie was being was being treated in the meeting. I think people need to realize that Susie and many.
Speaker 6: Others like her are trying to be part of the solution.
Speaker 11: Even though we still have a long way to go. We're headed in the right direction. The problem is not going to go away overnight. A year or so ago, there weren't all these intense community meetings or talks of study sessions, so we are headed in the right direction. One thing I did find very disturbing at Susie's meetings was the public's.
Speaker 6: Lack of compassion I.
Speaker 11: Felt for the homeless. No one chooses to be homeless, and these are good people who deserve our compassion. Long Beach is a compassionate city that cares about its own. Proven by the fact that we are already, I believe, right in the midst of Long Beach serves right now and with Long Beach serves. Obviously the whole point of that encouraging volunteerism.
Speaker 0: We've got to wrap it up.
Speaker 11: Uh huh, yeah. Okay. Now, imagine if we had never had compassion for the. For the LGBT community. I can't even imagine that we couldn't have done that. And they've become a very vibrant part of our city. And imagine if we hadn't opened our arms to them. I have to wrap it up. So it's okay. It's okay. Oh, I just I just want just one last thing. It's just that, you know, I think many volunteer based organizations are really trying to be involved in the solution. So, as you say, it's really all about community partners and all of us working together.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Great job.
Speaker 11: Next speaker.
Speaker 4: Good evening. Good evening, mayor garcia and city. So city council members.
Speaker 1: Thank you. First of all, I want to thank you very much for.
Speaker 4: Always having homeless.
Speaker 1: Homelessness as one of your priority. And we really appreciate that. And we have not seen that for a very long time. So thank you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: And to essentially.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for.
Speaker 4: Having such an amazing presentation. I think had a lot of information and I think it was something.
Speaker 1: Very good for people to see.
Speaker 4: And to hear about. So thank you for that. My name is Cassandra Lab. I've been involved with Interior House for over 20 years and today I'm the operations director in Denver. House upon his daughter 37 years ago and has constantly been delivering culturally competent level of service to the homeless family. With the support of our city and with our involvement with the continuum of care, we have been able to evolve from a small domestic violence shelter.
Speaker 1: Which operated from the garage of the home into the.
Speaker 4: Award winning domestic violence program that we are today providing emergency shelter.
Speaker 1: Transitional center.
Speaker 4: And rapid.
Speaker 1: Rehousing to thousands of people who are.
Speaker 4: Homeless. Over the years into the House has served.
Speaker 1: As a bridge to new life for thousands of families in crisis who turned to us during the time of greatest needs into our houses.
Speaker 4: Provided safe shelter.
Speaker 1: Rapid rehousing and comprehensive wraparound services to ensure that the most vulnerable in our community.
Speaker 4: Are provided with the support they need to stay off the street and open permanent housing. Because of this city, successful efforts to prevent and end homelessness and to work.
Speaker 1: With the continuum of care.
Speaker 4: Agencies such as Interval House. Many individuals I found housing and dramatically turn the situation around. This number is increasing tremendously, but I want to share with everyone that all the efforts that have been made over the years are effective.
Speaker 1: And we are proud of and we are a proof of it because we are serving many.
Speaker 4: Many, many homeless and able.
Speaker 1: To offer them housing today.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 12: Hi. My name is Melissa Sanchez.
Speaker 4: I'm kind of short.
Speaker 1: Sorry. Thank you for holding this meeting. I actually came.
Speaker 12: Just to talk about something that's currently going on.
Speaker 4: In the apartment complex that I live in.
Speaker 12: And I don't know if any of you have children. I have an autistic eight year old, and she has a really beautiful smile. And she couldn't talk until she was four.
Speaker 1: And I have a seven.
Speaker 4: Year old and an 11 month old with the.
Speaker 12: Most beautiful eyes and a. He's very sweet, but we're looking.
Speaker 1: About we're about to be.
Speaker 12: Homeless.
Speaker 1: Again. It's been five years. I've lived in my apartment complex and I reported the property management for bedbugs and and.
Speaker 12: You know, like to housing.
Speaker 4: To the housing department.
Speaker 12: Like I'm supposed to.
Speaker 4: Right. Because they made me the manager, and now they're trying to give me a three day notice.
Speaker 1: And I don't.
Speaker 4: Know if any of.
Speaker 1: You have ever.
Speaker 12: Took your kids in at night. Right. And you get.
Speaker 1: That good feeling because, you know, they're safe and. Have you ever put a blanket over them in your.
Speaker 12: Car after they asked you where we're going to sleep? While you're sleeping in a white residential neighborhood because you don't want them to.
Speaker 1: Be attacked and you have a hammer.
Speaker 5: In your front seat because you're afraid somebody might try to.
Speaker 12: Do something to children. It's not a good feeling. And I'm sticking up for the other.
Speaker 5: Five or six tenants that they're trying to kick out.
Speaker 4: Giving 30 day notices because they want to fix the places up and increase the rent. And maybe.
Speaker 1: What I say doesn't make a.
Speaker 12: Difference.
Speaker 1: But my kids have played with their kids for five years and. They're like best friends with a lot of the kids in the neighborhood. And I've just been really upset.
Speaker 4: My my brother's homeless right now, and we don't have a lot of help.
Speaker 5: You know, and I know that there's nonprofits that can help. Pay for funding for buildings.
Speaker 12: For therapists, for all of that. If you guys.
Speaker 5: Would actually just look into it and if you need more information for me, because I.
Speaker 1: Do know some places.
Speaker 4: You can call me 5626163983. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: Rex Goodyear.
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Karen Reside. Thank you, everybody, for having this opportunity. This is amazing and amazing discussion. Tonight, I come as being involved in the Homeless Advisory Commission with Gary Shelton in the early days when we were working on this problem and two years ago I became homeless myself, my boyfriend decided to end the relationship by locking me out of the apartment at 1230 on a Saturday night. And there's just a couple of points I really wanted to make tonight is if I knew a lot about homeless services, was embarrassed and ashamed to seek out the help that I needed. It took me three days to get over the shock and realize that I was homeless. How is it for a people that have mental issues and drug issues? How can we help to help to house them? And I ran a program at Second Samoan Congregational Church where we fed and provided services to the homeless. The homeless create their own community because we are ostracized. This you don't know what it's like to be homeless until you have to bathe in a sink and. I can't couldn't talk and tell my friends this because I was afraid of their reaction. I was lucky I had people that allowed me to couch surf in their homes and places where I could stay that were safe. So we need to preserve those communities. And when we look at doing providing services for them, that's what I see is the big gap, because they're living outside of the norms. They still have to have support and they lean on each other. And I don't know. And I had to call a person's father and tell him that he had OD'd and something I never, ever want to see anybody have to do. Thank you.
Speaker 10: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Good evening. My name is Sharon. We with a real house again. And I wanted to really think Kelly and Teresa for so eloquently educating all of us about what is really happening with homelessness in our city. And I also wanted to thank our mayor and Councilmember Price for really engaging important dialog in our communities near where our shelters and walking centers are located. And we at the past chair of the Lobby S.O.S.. I know that our Long Beach Continuum of Care and our Multi-Service Center, we've really coordinated very innovative efforts that have successfully addressed issues of homelessness. But clearly, we have a lot more work to do. There are new emerging needs and issues and diverse challenges that are facing our homeless population today that is different than in the past. And so we really appreciate the opportunity for us to have these important dialogs and to ask how do we have a thriving city as well as take care of those that have nowhere else to go? And I do believe that with our brilliant city leaders, community service providers are engaged community citizens that are concerned about these needs that we can come up with something that really works. And we at Interval House, we see every day homeless these women and children that don't have anywhere to go. And we feel honored and we're committed to working together with everyone to really come up with these solutions and try to prevent and make sure that we have less homeless individuals and families on the streets in our city . So thank you very much.
Speaker 10: Thank you. In just a moment, we have an individual up top. So, Mr. Rockwell, you want to go ahead and give your 2 minutes?
Speaker 11: Thank you. I have a friend that has been homeless since January. The reason for her being homeless is not because of the fact that she and her husband can't pay rent. They lived in their apartment for 39 years before being evicted. They were evicted because a new owner bought the place and needed to be redone and the city code would not allow them to stay there. And the part meant that they had. They've been living in a motel ever since because she is in a wheelchair and they haven't been able to find any place that is suitable for them to live because there are no accessible housing units to be had in the city, not at any price unless you can pay over $5,000 a month. They were paying approximately 2000 or less, less than 2000 a month for their place. But now they're having to stay in a motel where they have no kitchen, one bed and not very comfortable. And that's by the time they pay their motel. Food, eating out and all the rest of it that is costing them almost $10,000 a month. This is ridiculous. We do not have proper, accessible housing and necessary and they are homeless even though they are in a motel. They are still homeless.
Speaker 10: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: Good evening. Patrick Watson, fourth district. Homelessness is a tragic situation that affects a lot of people. And I think all the citizens of Long Beach try to be compassionate. With that said, there is a big gap between people that are homeless, disabled, in need of mental care and those that due to Prop 47 that are repetitive thieves , drug users and going out and taking advantage of community. Our police force is underpaid, understaffed. Morale is down. People are leaving. The city doesn't have the money to pay the police force. I was told by one police officer there, one officer in the entire department, one that's tasked with tracking the homeless criminals that are repeat offenders, sexual predators, thieves, drug users. One for the whole city. I think the city you know, city people here, the councilman and the mayor owe it to the people that pay the taxes, bring the money into the city, that help pay for these programs to protect their homes. I don't think Janine or Suzy want people defecating in their yard. And I'm sure if it was happening in their front yard and their stuff was being stolen, they would have police all over the place. Mr. Super and I live in his neighborhood and it hasn't really been a big issue for him either. But crime has gone up astronomically in our neighborhood. We have a ride away between the freeway and Knoxville Avenue where the homeless are living, and they're coming out every night. My wife goes out at 430 in the morning. She's afraid to walk to her car in this neighborhood because she's caught numerous people lurking in the cars coming out of bushes. I think we owe it to the whole community, the entire community to protect everybody, including the homeless and everybody else. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 7: Hello. I'm Myron Woolen, secretary of the Long Beach Gray Panthers. I'm here speaking not as a not for the Great Panthers, but as an individual. We are concerned about senior citizens, the Great Panthers and the problems that they have with homelessness. And we've heard an eloquent speaker talk about all the issues regarding the seniors. But I would like to issue a challenge to the city council and to Mayor Garcia. I by the way, I would say that you've done a great job. I really appreciate the fact that we now have this forum to speak. But the challenge I'd like to issue to the council is to set as a goal zero homelessness. Now, this is a goal, right? It's something you strive for. It's something you want you hope you can get. I would like the city council to do this now, if one of the ways we talked about getting rid of homelessness or reducing homelessness was a wonderful plan that Kelley proposed. But one of the things I heard in her presentation was that there were no resources that she was stuck because they weren't resources and she couldn't carry out plans. She couldn't continue to do things to reduce homelessness. So where where is this resource? Where can we get these resources? Well, one thing she mentioned was that it'd be volunteers. Well, I did volunteer work. I got with the drop in center and we did that. We, we, we we're a rich country. We should be able to solve this problem. Utah was able to solve and have zero homelessness. Why can't we? We should think outside the box. There's a proposition, J.J. in Los Angeles, which will require that whenever a department wants to make a zoning change, that they have to set aside a certain percentage, percentage of their housing to be affordable housing. Now, that's one way of doing it. You can't just do it in terms of volunteers. You have to have some oomph and some push behind it. The also, I would say that we should try and increase the penalties for false evictions and that would help with homelessness so they can get again, I urge you, adopt zero homelessness as your goal.
Speaker 0: Thank you, sir. Next speaker. But there's Espanol in English and Spanish. Okay. So make sure that double the time.
Speaker 1: When I noches Alcala I'll Garcia at out of context let me know. But as my coauthor we everybody thought numero uno. Good evening mayor and City Council.
Speaker 4: My name is Martha Cota and I live in the first council district.
Speaker 1: In my less ghetto. They see it as not knowing they want an overlap and we need a mirror nightmare. So to look is to pasando. Right. That closes. I lost.
Speaker 4: I just want to say this isn't news to us.
Speaker 1: We know this. I'm not surprised.
Speaker 4: And what's going on.
Speaker 1: Is those are the civil. Ontario maintenance consultant and Community Plan Quality. Kilcullen Theriault Catholic Community Papakura Community Not been enough.
Speaker 4: This happened.
Speaker 1: With.
Speaker 4: The previous mayor in office when they decided to come forward with what was called the Community Downtown.
Speaker 1: Plan and which I then.
Speaker 4: Addressed to the former mayor that he should remove the community component in the down community downtown by name because it had nothing to do with.
Speaker 1: The community involvement. Savvy and Kiran being single mean familias gave an asset of this place plethora. The tallest idea is favela celebrity by that burrard-lucas that was underwritten.
Speaker 4: It was well known that 25,000 families were going to be displaced by this downtown plan.
Speaker 1: Was were you guys are you guys prepared for what's coming? MISKELLY You also of the assets all or possibly purchased, they're not normal additions to the economic cycle.
Speaker 4: Misskelley I know that you're doing the best that you can in your abilities to do what you can to solve the issue. But it is not in your power. It is in power. Our legislators and as.
Speaker 1: Mayor he does have Iraqi who aren't as familiar. Jealous And I also think that he has also s.d.s. There is a local character separate, but I want to say bottom in authority.
Speaker 4: I'm going to ask the public or whomever received a 30 to 60 day notice recently to please stand up.
Speaker 1: Let's take one divided by 15 enormous, you know, policy and another parochial can say Pakistan or should Yahya get out of the you know whatever representation they Miskelly Burkett or you and Trey Jarvis the piece on the man that I.
Speaker 4: Was unable to be here on time because.
Speaker 1: I today had to surrender the keys of the place that I.
Speaker 4: Was being displaced myself. Here you have at least less than 1% of the folks representing the folks that are actually being evicted, which may not be a lot to you, but it is.
Speaker 1: In la monica stonecutters thought familias and non-natives here and non-natives you'll say gate band of Galeria order I think went about it. But la la la familia Salina is going to get something going about it back on plate that dollars.
Speaker 4: I'm in a building 14 units a total of 14 units. And in those 14 units, those are 14 families that are being evicted and there's only 50 vouchers a year. Do you think that that's going to be sufficient for the families that are being displaced.
Speaker 1: Those hotels? If Trump and Sanders say these things happen better than I do. No, no. Not accepting consensus. I mean, remember cupertino spent a couple of ninyo cannot get in as a party and only use an apartment.
Speaker 4: You may be asking if they're excepting pets in the hotels. But what I'm concerned and most worried about right now is the children. These hotel.
Speaker 12: Rooms sometimes.
Speaker 4: Don't even take children.
Speaker 1: You attract both. It's the mobile scandal part that meant we saw you a fan destroying Cinderella's edifice. You'll get into her office where they can see it like a witness to the op with me lobbing cientos and me by, you know, downtown Long Beach. NRDC says a la lawn is a la Anaheim. Well, thank God to give almost up my autism, where the question is.
Speaker 4: Are you developing affordable housing? And in my block there is at the rate for rent, there is $1,000. Do you think that we are going to be able to afford.
Speaker 1: That then go to was only that. You know there are like musicals about to start. I mean like I you. Admiral of politics. But it's not conclusive. Welcome on the lunatic note indicates that 80% of the gay youth in England don't plan to do something about it and that only one can acquire. But look at when I said no. Look when you are putting the police here.
Speaker 4: I'm glad, commander, the chiefs here. I commend him for his work because he is the one who.
Speaker 1: Also deals at the officers.
Speaker 4: And counter the homeless population. And their only thing that they can do is move him from one place to another. There's really nothing else that can be done.
Speaker 0: Doing a little more time just for the translation. So you can continue.
Speaker 1: No. You know, they said yes to Prabhupada. Yes, we in our seniors. Okay, he pronto. But on your way after my miracle pilot young yemisi now that I want to say very young them away, I should be seeing there any piece of pie that I personal seniors can.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to keep up looks okay so I did miss she has three students who are in the university and whom she's afraid because who are in college right now. And she's worried that they may end up homeless during their transitional phase. In addition, I am now entering I'm now a senior and now I'm concerned and worried to what my fate will lead as a senior.
Speaker 1: Well, there is, but I won't. Then don't. I might be told me school first. I committed the audit and they don't. They will not put up or get no ice office in this seat. Then I will say lost policy in the apartment. Those why can't this will stay to kill those policy and I I to like expand grandiose prophecy into nice office as his condolences. But all those Americans are those who stay there sapiens. They kick one documents will be released. Well, of course those who will follow not only that, but also start and order for their conquer. Love me in darkest hour. They like almost solution are total.
Speaker 4: So as I'm moving and transitioning out, do you even wonder, do you ask me, where do I put my things? I have to put them in a storage.
Speaker 1: That's where they go.
Speaker 5: Oh, man, it was a lie.
Speaker 1: And, oh.
Speaker 4: The best part. Okay, so I am. I am. I am urging my city council member and mayor. Was it was it.
Speaker 12: Difficult to how difficult.
Speaker 1: Was it to raise?
Speaker 8: No.
Speaker 1: Raise your salaries. Right. Let's go for elementary salary. You how hard it was to raise the salaries.
Speaker 4: The minimum wage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I could stand up or Yarmouth, I could say compelling love lost both to de la Renta when I really like them almost always. And is it really that difficult for you guys to.
Speaker 4: Impose.
Speaker 1: A freeze and rent increases? So a freeze and rent increases. Comandante Luna. See what I mean? Quintanilla's policy? Yes. Lawman No, no, not anchor. Acquitted is the guest. I'm not used to you. No, no, no. My support of me for Bola hint that you're starting to be in some initial galaxy assignment layoff wearer. No foreboding windows. Because, I mean, this is when the Cowboys will send your son a kicker. Not even gonna be a chief when you. If you were to. If you or your officers.
Speaker 4: Ever see me in the street and a bench sleeping or whomever you see. Think about me. It's the ordinary folks like myself who are there and all these folks who are being evicted and displaced right now.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. And I try to do extra time because the translation. But I'm going to try to go back to the to the time, please. Yes, sir.
Speaker 11: My name is John Kendrick, and I'm on the borderline of District one and District two. Thank you, ladies. Uh, I've heard and seen a lot tonight and a lot of things I hear tonight. I think it happened to me about 12 years ago. Nothing has changed. We have been in a chronic homeless state since 2005, 2007, and nothing's changed cept the faces just talking about it and everything. I want to thank the agencies that try to do their job with the overburdened and understaffed and underfunded programs. You know, it's hard. But also to us diplomacy, they call it. I was a homeless student of three children. One was a girl, one with special needs. And I was a major, a dual major, which I got two of my associates and a certificate. And the whole time there I tried to help the homeless. But when I ask people and put it up at the college multiple times, I heard it does not exist because we do not see it. You know, and today it's gotten worse. This part, it's not a Long Beach problem, a California problem or a state parliament. It's a national problem. And even in other countries now, it's pretty. So you can't run and hide somewhere else. You know, you're stuck. Where you at? You know, and. A lot of things I heard tonight, but I didn't hear. The fact that students are becoming prostitutes, looking for sugar daddies. Doing all kinds of things to get education. And then when they don't make it, they all. Thousands of dollars for education. People don't make it to school. You know, this problem is a problem that cannot go away.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 12: My name is George Anatole. His name is Manuel Tovar.
Speaker 0: Would you mind speaking into the mic, ma'am? Thank you so much.
Speaker 12: My name is George Genitals. This is Manuel Tovar. In about three weeks, we're going to be homeless, sleeping in our car. We are also addicts and recovery. I have nine and a half years. He has five years. So we know what it's like to be homeless. We've been there and we fought to get out. Now I've lived where I live.
Speaker 5: For three years I.
Speaker 12: Managed to live with me about eight months ago because he was homeless and needed help. I also have a caregiver. He has a caregiver. This Mike. Michael Dunphy bought our building and gave us a letter stating that they were happy to work with us and within two days gave us a 60 day notice and wanted us to pay rent. So now in three weeks, we're going to end up living in a car because there's no no affordable housing. This man, as soon as he bought the building, came in and started demoing. I'm not an idiot. I called the city. I called. Hey, I called the city and asked if it was legal. He doesn't even have permits. He's making our life miserable. And when I asked him about it, he told me, Oh, it's not personal. It's business. Well, this isn't personal. It's my life in years. We can't even find an apartment. We have incomes. I have money for a deposit. But nobody will rent to us because we don't make three times the amount of rent. I'm not asking for anybody to give me anything. I've worked hard to get where I'm at. I was homeless. I was a drug addict. Nine and a half years clean. We're going to end up homeless. You know what happens when you're homeless? You start hanging out in the wrong crowds and you might as well join them. And I don't want that for either one of us. I'm 56. I have lupus. I have Parkinson's. I'm on a liver transplant list. Imani's disabled from being homeless. He got jumped in the streets when he was 16. So we need help. There's got to be something somebody can do to help us. This is ridiculous. My whole building that.
Speaker 5: I live behind.
Speaker 12: Everybody is disabled. We're mentally ill and we're handicapped. And we're get treated like we're garbage. And it's not fair.
Speaker 0: So I'm not sure if we can have someone talk to her real quick, please, from from the health department. We want you to go down here for a second. And maybe many, too. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 5: All right. Hi. My name is Althea Youngblood. I also live in the same building as she does.
Speaker 12: And like she said, they they've just been demolition in the building.
Speaker 5: They didn't even introduce themselves to us.
Speaker 12: They just.
Speaker 5: They were my apartment three times with.
Speaker 12: An inspection, and they didn't even say hello.
Speaker 5: Well, your name is what? Mine. You know nothing.
Speaker 12: You ain't even didn't even take the time to introduce themselves and threw us out. We have 60 days. I used to be homeless.
Speaker 5: I'm from Mental Health America.
Speaker 1: I used to be homeless.
Speaker 12: I got off the streets and now I'm facing going back. You know, how how how can these people get away with this? How can they keep raising.
Speaker 5: Throwing us out to re ventilate a building. A building. This from 1924. They want to make it new. You want a new building? You buy a new building. You don't destroy an old building. Throwing a so out so he can raise the rent three times. How is that fair? It's not fair.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 0: Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: Leaving Mayor and City Council. My name is Tom Crow and I'm with Long Beach. Residents Empowered. And we want to thank the city council members who joined us on our recent crisis housing tour of Long Beach, where we took journalists and journalists and funders around to see what was going on in Long Beach. Tonight I am reading a letter from one of the residents who couldn't be here from 4446 Linden. My name is Barbara Brubaker. I live at 446 Linden, apartment number seven. I have lived there for 12 years and have lived in Long Beach for over 50 years. I am 69 years old. I live on a fixed income of $850 a month. I pay $750 a month to rent my small studio. In in the time I have lived here, I have constantly lived with roaches, bedbugs, and they've never once changed the carpets in 12 years. I have been homeless two different times in my life. The last time was for a few months. The village helped me find this apartment. I was given a 60 day notice to move. I have been looking and looking for another place to live and I can't seem to find something. I can afford to live in this area. I don't have a phone to call for apartments. I have to use the bus to search for a new place. I think I might have to live in a motel for a while until I can find another place to live. I do not know how they can just kick us out for no reason. They could have at least given us no indication or maybe even helped us. Helped relocate us. It's not fair what they're doing. They don't treat us right. They don't treat us like humans. No one should ever be evicted if they pay their rent on time. That's what I thought. I've been homeless before and I may be homeless again if I can't find another place to stay. As you all talk about the homeless, please think about us and how every single one of us is at risk of being homeless because of what is happening in Long Beach right now. I support more renter protections in Long Beach and I wish there was more affordable housing for people like me. Benita Brew Baker. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: Good evening. My name is Neal Richman, a relatively recent member of the Long Beach community. My background is in affordable housing development. I was the executive director of Community Corporation of Santa monica a long time ago when it began to experience the effects of gentrification and rapid price increases. Of course, they had rent stabilization and the kinds of things you've heard about today. But they also started a nonprofit development corporation that purchased existing properties like these properties, rehabilitated them, but not for another economic group for the residents who live there now. And so I would really argue it's not just about inclusionary units. It's about taking out risk. We talked about at risk housing, at risk publicly subsidized housing. There's at risk private housing as well that can be purchased, put in nonprofit ownership, taken off the market and used to preserve livable environments, improved environments, affordable environments for residents. So I want you to encourage you to think about that and in coming up with a strategy to prevent homelessness. Thanks very much.
Speaker 0: Thank you. And before he goes up, just cutting off the speaker's list. Looks like we have the last person there, Shirley. So I'm going to go and cut that off. And then. And then anyone else that's in line. Please, please come forward and speak.
Speaker 11: Sitting and waiting in line.
Speaker 0: Oh, sir. Then you go ahead, please.
Speaker 11: My name is Miller, and I'm a product of what you have been speaking about. I had a. 40 year addiction. I've been from coast to coast and I've carried me with me. When I got here in Long Beach, I was introduced to a safer refuge as a chef, and through the village down the street and other world trade purposes, all the facilities that you had been speaking about is what helped me become who I am today. J. However, where I was living right down the street from her, I systematically, through the few years, watch them do block after block and they are down the hall purchasing this. That's none of my business. But I watch my neighbors being moved out, written, buildings ruined, invaded, and they're being up. Okay, so you want us out, but we don't have the money to be giving them. Landlord. Athens man. Lord Ward the island or the the. Yeah, I. So, I mean, it's not fair it. All I always say is if you don't want me to. Convert to where I came from. Help me. Hold on to what you showed me. You get.
Speaker 0: Thank you, sir.
Speaker 11: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. City Council. I don't want to repeat everything that happened, but I am working with the folks from four for six Linden, which is a 20 unit building, got by on September 9th and September 12th. They got issued a 60 day notice all across the board, just right up the street, another building at five, ten, five, 12. I don't know exactly what the address is. It has all kinds of crazy addresses. 24 unit building got beat up, 60 day notice. They all have to be out by November 20th, right before Thanksgiving. And I was just told by an MHRA worker that another building on Magnolia just got bought out because one of their clients is also housed there and they're going to be given a 30 or 60 day notice. So this is happening all over the place. Right. So and I know I know you have a tough job, homelessness. You got to deal with building affordable housing, affordable housing creation and also the prevention. Right. But there is stuff that you as city council, as leaders you can put into place right now. Right now, just just slow it down to help you to give you some breathing room, actually, you know, help these folks out. The people, the people that couldn't be here today, some that don't with that. They're too afraid to speak. They're disabled. They've been homeless. There's a veteran. There's a couple of veterans that are going to be put on the street. So near zero, veteran homelessness. What are we doing to keep them off of the streets? You can help that. You can help that. Right now, some folks that are already giving you the solutions. Right. There's there's just cause prevention. Eviction prevention. There's rent control. There's all kinds of stuff. And as program director of Live Long Beach residents empowered as a new community organizing group that's here, trying to advance justice in housing preservation and creation, renter protections and community economic development. I await the invitation to sit with you and to talk about some of these solutions. I want to sit with you and to be part of the solutions. I know it's going to be really difficult for you, but this this show of people today, all these stories, this can be you're your family. You wanted to look at us as people at homelessness, as human beings. These are people right here, right in front of you. This can be your mom. This can be your aunt. This can be your brother. This can be your sister. What are you going to say to them? Tell them that you're going to help them. Tell them that you're going to put renter protections in place to keep this from happening again. Please. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Next speaker, please.
Speaker 11: My name is Anton, and this is my sweater. And I don't know who's your friends on it. I had a 4.0.
Speaker 2: GPA.
Speaker 3: In college.
Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. Your next speaker, please.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mayor. City council members.
Speaker 12: And city officials that are here. Um, my name is Cynthia Jesus. And I received a 60 day notice along with the other tenants in my building. When our building was bought. We've all tried to pay our rent. They've denied our rents. Now, I don't know any landlord that wouldn't want their rent. You know, it's kind of absurd to me that you are willing to kick out these families because none of us are drug addicts. I'm a single mother, not by choice, but because I had to get out of the domestic violence situation and I had to do what was best for my kids now. And that was in 2013 that I was homeless because I was, you know, leaving a domestic violence situation. Here we are three years later, going into four. And now I'm about to be homeless again. And that is very terrifying to, like the other woman said, to have to look at your kids at night and, you know, not be able to tell them we're going to be here. They're asking me, what are we going to do for Halloween? I don't know because I don't know if I'm have a home, let alone take you to trick or treating. So I know everyone's here talking about the homelessness, but we got to look at the bigger picture here. None of these people like myself would not be homeless if these landlords would actually look at us as human beings
Speaker 1: . And not a check. That is the problem.
Speaker 12: So what I think that you should really look at is the bigger picture. If you have so many homelessness, then there's something wrong with these landlords, okay? Because they sell properties and guess what? The next person buys it. Both of them benefit, they both profit. But what do we profit? What do we get out of that before a foot behind us and get out? That's sad, you know, and it's sickening and it's saddening. You know, I'm getting evicted. And just the other day, I seen an elderly lady outside of 7-Eleven on Seventh and Cherry. And most of the officials will tell you it's very bad out there. And this woman was not asking for home. She wasn't asking for money. She was asking for something to eat because she had not ate in five days. I didn't know this woman. I took her in my house and I still fed her. Now, if everybody sat there and took the time to be caring of one another, we wouldn't be in this predicament that we are.
Speaker 5: Thank you for your time.
Speaker 0: Thank you. And then our last speaker will be me, Shirley Grayson.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I want to separate the room for a minute. And those of us who are of Judeo-Christian belief, I have a message for you. Jesus said in his in his message of Matthew 2531, When he returns, he will say to you, How many strangers did you not city council, not the mayor, not the attorney or manager , how many did you take in and to each of you individually? He will ask you, how many did you bring in? That's our big issue. The next time you can really put a time offering in our offering plate. First look at Deuteronomy 2612. Write it down, do Romney 1428 every three years.
Speaker 12: Your tie belongs to the poor, not your pastor. And they won't like because I'm saying it in this venue. But I must say it. Your tired belongs to the poor. Every three.
Speaker 1: Years. Proverbs 29 and seven. This is the definition of wickedness. The wicked care. Nothing for the poor. Matthew 24, Jesus said before he returns at the age of 33, he will be 33 when he returns.
Speaker 12: I will say to the wicked. Those of you who care nothing for the poor.
Speaker 1: Regardless of your title, you failed to do what I told you to do.
Speaker 12: That's what he's going to say. Now, my husband was the battalion chief, over 14 fire stations in Los Angeles City.
Speaker 1: And tonight he's in Inglewood Cemetery.
Speaker 12: Laying next to some homeless people. Because you homeless after you die. And when you leave here tonight, look up at the sky and the moon.
Speaker 1: If it's out. And then when you.
Speaker 12: Open your key to your house, regardless of the mortgage you're paying on it, go in a few steps and then.
Speaker 1: Walk out and look back up at the sky. And before you close your eyes tonight, you say to God.
Speaker 12: Please reveal to me that I am homeless now.
Speaker 1: Regardless of the house I live in. You're homeless. We're all homeless.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. Assad. That concludes I conclude public comment. Let me let me just close this out in just a few things, and then we'll begin the council meeting. First, I want to I want to begin by just thanking everyone that came out tonight. I know a lot of people had to leave. People work. People have families. Things happen to children. But I just want to thank every single person that came in and those that came that I know that we had an overflow, overflow crowd as well. And I really appreciate the kind of the spirit of everyone's comments and their commitment. And really, I think the great ideas and passion that we show tonight. I especially want to thank people that came out that are currently experiencing homelessness or are about to experience homelessness or are fearful for their position, you know, in life and in our community and especially, thank you to all of you for having the courage to speak out on on your on your on your life and where you're at right now. I'll just again, just say one more time that I don't think that this conversation is somehow inclusive of just what's happening today. And there are will continue to be conversations in the community as certain council members have already hosted and will continue to host. And I'm really hoping that we begin to have some conversations as we lead up to this summit in early next year, which a lot of the people that were here and are here are actually planning a huge summit on this topic. And so I encourage us to to be involved in that. I also encourage, while it's a separate conversation, there is a connection between the two. There is an ongoing conversation right now about affordable housing that we're having with a variety of community meetings. Another one is coming up in a couple of weeks or in a week or so. And so that continues, and that will be before the council as well in the next couple of months. And so just thank you again for for contributing. It was a good conversation. I think it was one that needed to be heard. And so I just thank you again for coming out tonight. And so with that, I'm going to close the study session and I'm going to just take a short recess and then we'll adjourn just for a couple of minutes so we can get set up for the council meeting. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Good.
Speaker 0: All right. We're going to go ahead and start the council meeting. Oh. Okay. If I can have everyone, please grab a seat for the council meeting. If you're not staying for the council meeting. If I can just have those. The rest of those folks either sit down or exit, please. Yeah. Okay. We're going to take the two items that I discussed earlier. First, Madam Court, can I go ahead and get the roll call, please?
Speaker 1: Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember Pierce. Councilwoman Price. Councilmember Superman here. Councilwoman Mongo. Councilman Andrews. Councilmember Muranga. Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson. Mayor Garcia.
Recommendation to conduct a study session to receive and file a report on the current state of homelessness and review progress of last 10-year plan.