Long Beach In Talks To Aquire Property For Year-Round Homeless Shelter

LONG BEACH, CA — The Long Beach City Council will begin talks to purchase property from the Long Beach Rescue Mission to use as a year-round homeless shelter at Tuesday's meeting.

As part of Long Beach's declaration of a state of emergency on homelessness in January, city officials started working with Los Angeles County for assistance to strengthen resources and opportunities to help more people experiencing homelessness in Long Beach. The County committed $6.5 million toward the acquisition of the property with the support of Supervisor Janice Hahn and CEO Fesia Davenport.

“This acquisition is a game changer with many benefits, establishing a permanent space for the annual Winter Shelter program, increasing access to interim housing and, ultimately, connections to permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness, and also enabling our partners at the Long Beach Rescue Mission to expand their capacity and impact,” said Mayor Rex Richardson.

Following the closure of Long Beach's temporary winter shelter at Community Hospital, the city relocated the service to the Rescue Mission property at 702 W. Anaheim St. Originally, the shelter was planned to be open from April 28 through July 28, with the possibility for services to be extended further if needed.

Given the past use of the property, city officials submitted an offer to the Long Beach Rescue Mission, which agreed to sell the property to the city for $7.2 million. In total, the acquisition will cost the city approximately $13.2 million, which includes maintenance and upgrade costs.

Funding for the acquisition came from three sources, the County's $6.5 million commitment, $5.7 million from Long Beach's Measure A funds and the remaining $1 million from the city's general fund.

"This property is going to be an asset in our effort to bring people inside in Long Beach. If we are going to get a handle on the homelessness crisis, we need reliable interim shelter beds that we can use at a moment’s notice to help a person off the streets,” Hahn said.

The temporary shelter will be operated by the nonprofit organization First to Serve Outreach Ministries and is funded by a mixture of city and county funds that cover the lease, operations, services, transportation and security services.

At the shelter, people experiencing homelessness will receive ongoing care, including three meals per day, onsite showers and restrooms and an outdoor area for pets as well as case management, screening for housing programs, referrals to year-round shelter programs, assistance obtaining identification and documents and connections to behavioral health resources.

Prior to the property's use as a temporary shelter, the city conducted community meetings to share the proposed plans and promised to hold additional meetings if the shelter were to transition to a year-round facility.

Long Beach officials said they continued to perform additional outreach to keep the surrounding community informed.

“The City’s acquisition and use of this property will allow us to continue to provide much needed relief to our residents who are unhoused,” said First District Councilwoman Mary Zendejas. “I am honored to welcome this new City asset to our community, and I look forward to discussing this item with my Council colleagues.”