The nonprofit that has operated a transitional and supportive housing site for Long Beach for the past two years is pulling out, leaving the city to use its staff and temporary workers to run the 102-bed facility in the Washington neighborhood.
Its residents, who were formerly homeless, will not have to leave the facility during the transition, Paul Duncan, the city’s Homeless Services Bureau manager, said Tuesday.
“Obviously it creates a lot of anxiety for the people that are there, a lot of challenges for the operation moving from one service provider to another,” Duncan told the city’s Continuum of Care board at a meeting Tuesday. The board includes representatives of a variety of agencies and organizations that have a stake in homeless services.
The city opened the transitional housing in a former Best Western hotel in 2021. It was designed for unhoused seniors and people with health conditions that put them at greater risk in the pandemic.
The city started looking for a new operator for the Long Beach Boulevard site in December, when officials learned that the Illumination Foundation didn’t intend to stay on past the end of its contract next month, Duncan said. But there likely won’t be enough time to bring a new operator on board before the Illumination Foundation bows out on Feb. 18.
Illumination Foundation officials couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
Duncan said the explanation he was given was, “wanting to focus in on recuperative care programs,” which has been one of the nonprofit’s main services.
But he also told the board the reimbursement rate shelter operators get – typically a flat amount per bed per night – is too low, and that it’s a system-wide problem also facing Los Angeles County’s shelters. The reimbursement is intended to cover day-to-day operating costs as well as an increasing number of social services.
“When you think about three meals per day, security, utilities, maintenance … it’s not really possible to do at $50” per shelter guest, Duncan said.
The real cost is probably closer to $80 per bed, he said. The city is talking with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (which helps funds Los Angeles County shelters and provides some funding to Long Beach) about raising the reimbursement, Duncan said.
Duncan said the city is making contingency plans to staff the housing site for about two and a half months while a new operator is found. Some of the current staff want to stay, so the city will try to negotiate jobs for them with whoever takes over the contract, he said.