PRESS RELEASE

The City of Long Beach has launched a new initiative to address the statewide homelessness crisis and its impacts on Long Beach. Designed to build on the City’s comprehensive homeless assistance and affordable housing efforts already underway, Everyone Home Long Beach will look at innovative approaches to provide new pathways into homes and prevent residents from falling into homelessness. 

“While Long Beach has done incredible work to address the linked challenges of homelessness and housing affordability, it is clear that we all need to do much more,” said Mayor Robert Garcia. “Everyone Home Long Beach will engage key leaders from across the City to develop new solutions to support individuals and families in our community.”

Addressing the issue of homelessness is a leading priority for the City Council, City departments, City commissions, and the Long Beach Continuum of Care (CoC). As one of only three cities in Los Angeles County to operate its own CoC, Long Beach has seen a 41% decline in the homelessness population from 2011 to 2017. 

Led by the Department of Health and Human Services, the CoC coordinates housing and funding for services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The City’s Multi-Service Center has over 13,000 visits each year. Nearly 3,100 people have been permanently housed since 2013, and 390 of them in 2017 were veterans.

Additionally, the City has worked diligently to ensure quality, affordable housing options in Long Beach. Over the past five years, the City created or has in the pipeline, over 1400 new affordable units.

To further these efforts, the City has convened a new Everyone Home Long Beach Taskforce comprised of Chief Executive Officers and community leaders from major Long Beach institutions and organizations. The task force will review existing efforts to transition people back into housing and homeless services, identify new opportunities to support those who need housing, and develop solutions to prevent homelessness in the first place. The taskforce includes:

• Chair Jane Close Conoley, President, California State University, Long Beach.
• Vice Chair Andy Kerr, Board Member, Measure H Citizens' Oversight Advisory.
• John Bishop, President, Memorial Medical Center.
• Tonya Burns, Executive Director, Children Today.
• Carolyn Caldwell, President, St. Mary Medical Center.
• Suny Lay Chang, Chief Operating Officer, LINC Housing.
• Brian D'Andrea, President, Century Villages at Cabrillo.
• Walt Dannenberg, Medical Center Director, Veterans Affairs Long Beach Healthcare System.
• Porter Gilberg, Executive Director, The LGBTQ Center Long Beach.
• Randy Gordon, President, Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
• Thomas Hudson, Resident Commissioner, Housing Authority of the City of Long Beach.
• Jeff Johnson, Chair, Homeless Services Advisory Committee.
• Kraig Kojian, President, Downtown Long Beach Alliance.
• Jeff Levine, Program Director, Long Beach Rescue Mission and Co-Chair Continuum of Care.
• Janet McCarthy, President, Goodwill Southern Los Angeles County.
• Kenneth McDonald, Chief Executive Officer, Long Beach Transit.
• Chris Miller, President, Long Beach Mental Health America.
• Mary Ellen Mitchell, Executive Director, WomenShelter of Long Beach.
• John Molina, Partner, Pacific 6.
• Christine Petit, Executive Director, Long Beach Forward/Building Healthy Communities.
• Jessica Quintana, Executive Director, Centro CHA.
• Erin Rank, President & CEO, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles.
• Reagan Romali, Superintendent, Long Beach City College.
• Gregory Sanders, President, Long Beach Ministers Alliance.
• Susana Sngiem, Executive Director, United Cambodian Community.
• Chris Steinhauser, Superintendent, Long Beach Unified School District.
• John Thomas, Chair, The Long Beach Community Investment Company.
• Brenda Threatt, Executive Director, U.S. VETS Long Beach.
• Chris Wing, Chief Executive Officer, SCAN Health Plan.

The task force will meet four times over the course of this summer. Their work will be encapsulated into a formal report by City staff and presented to the Mayor and City Council this fall. Meetings are scheduled for three hours; and time will be reserved for public comment. The first task force meeting is currently planned for June 15, 2018, at California State University, Long Beach, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Additional details for upcoming task force meetings, including dates and times, will be posted onto the Everyone Home Long Beach website as they become available.

This week, the City is implementing an Everyone Home Long Beach awareness campaign, which includes:

• An Everyone Home Long Beach webpage, www.longbeach.gov/EveryoneHomeLB. The page was developed to keep the community informed on the homeless assistance and affordable housing efforts currently underway, resources, information about task force meetings, and how the public can get involved.
• An #EveryoneHomeLB social media campaign to engage the community. From May 21 through May 25, daily posts on the City’s Facebook, Twitter, and lnstagram pages will be shared to begin a dialogue about Everyone Home Long Beach. On May 24 at 3:00 pm, a Facebook Live tour of the Multi-Service Center will be conducted to showcase the complete spectrum of services provided to assist people experiencing homelessness.
• The City’s new blog, lnsideLB, will feature a story on Immanuel Place on May 23. Immanuel Place is an adaptive reuse, affordable housing development project. The three-story development features 24 one-bedroom units for low-income seniors, including 15 units for individuals experiencing homelessness or at-risk of experiencing homelessness.

About the City of Long Beach

Home to approximately 480,000 people, the multiple award-winning and innovative City of Long Beach offers all the world-class amenities of a large metropolitan city while maintaining a strong sense of individual and diverse neighborhoods nestled together along the California coast. As a full-service charter city, Long Beach is home to the Queen Mary, Aquarium of the Pacific, several museums and theaters, a highly-rated school district, Long Beach Airport, the Port of Long Beach, as well as many award-winning City departments such as Health, Parks, Recreation and Marine, Development Services and more. The City also has a highly-respected university and city college, two historic ranchos, five hospitals, five golf courses, 170 parks, miles of beaches, marinas, bike paths, and a Bike Share program.