Long Beach residents stymie plan for shelter; they say it wasn’t about the homeless people

Lengthy Seashore officers on Tuesday introduced they’d halted plans to arrange a short lived winter homeless shelter at a neighborhood fitness center after complaints from neighbors.

These dwelling subsequent to the fitness center, positioned in Silverado Park, have insisted this isn’t a NIMBY concern. They are saying they don’t need to lose an necessary neighborhood gathering spot in an space of town the place leisure facilities are restricted.

Metropolis officers had proposed putting 84 beds contained in the fitness center beginning this month to accommodate folks dwelling on the streets throughout extraordinarily chilly and moist climate. A winter shelter at Neighborhood Hospital, which opened within the jap a part of town late final yr, has 81 beds, however they’re already taken, officers stated.

Residents who stay close to Silverado Park — at thirty second Road and Santa Fe Avenue — pushed again on the plan, saying it was unfair for town to remove a leisure facility in an space with out a lot open house. Neighbors held a rally exterior the fitness center earlier this month and as of Tuesday, greater than 1,100 folks had signed a Change.org petition asking for officers to rethink the shelter’s location.

Resident Anavelia Valencia questioned throughout a Metropolis Council assembly this month why town couldn’t discover a vacant constructing for the shelter.

“Let me be clear, this concern has nothing to do with being towards the homeless being housed,” Valencia stated. “It has all the things to do with taking already restricted assets away from a neighborhood that has already little to no assets.”

The variety of unsheltered people elevated dramatically in Lengthy Seashore throughout the pandemic. The seventh-most-populated metropolis in California has 3,296 folks experiencing some degree of homelessness, a 62% improve in contrast with 2020, based on a report printed final yr.

The nixing of the shelter location comes as Los Angeles is on monitor to expertise its longest chilly snap in almost 20 years. One other winter storm is predicted to hit the area, bringing rain, icy temperatures and low-elevation snow this week.

Meteorologists count on Wednesday to be the eighth consecutive day that downtown L.A. hasn’t topped 60 levels. Temperatures have dipped even decrease — typically into the 40s — in a single day.

On Friday, an individual experiencing homelessness in Lengthy Seashore died due to publicity to the weather. “We should do extra to forestall extra of the identical throughout the stormy weeks forward,” Mayor Rex Richardson and Metropolis Supervisor Tom Modica wrote in a letter to the neighborhood.

Richardson, who has stated tackling homelessness within the metropolis is a prime precedence, stated Tuesday he could be assembly with neighborhood leaders within the coming weeks as officers thought-about different attainable shelter areas. In an interview with The Instances, Richardson stated he was happy with the work town had carried out to deal with homelessness, noting that Lengthy Seashore had “extra shelter capability proper now than we’ve ever had.”

“However we nonetheless have to do extra,” he stated. “And in addition handle the long-term points like housing that’s inexpensive for households and ensuring that we have now everlasting supportive housing. We’ve to maintain that long-term lens going as nicely.”

Within the meantime, town has arrange 60 short-term beds for folks to remain in a single day on the Multi-Service Middle, which presents homeless help companies throughout excessive climate. However Richardson added that the placement wasn’t a long-term resolution for the reason that beds wanted to be cleared out for the middle’s daytime operations. Officers will proceed scouting for one more short-term winter shelter, he stated.

“We nonetheless want extra capability to successfully meet this problem,” Richardson stated.