The Long Beach City Council is expected to declare a shelter crisis during tonight’s meeting, which will allow them to move forward and create a new homeless shelter location at 1405 Lewis Avenue.
The issue will be brought up during a special meeting at 6:00pm.
For the past three years, winter shelters operated in an empty warehouse on the border of Long Beach and Signal Hill. That property was claimed, however, before the Long Beach Rescue Mission could rent it this year. The Rescue Mission will be operating the new Lewis Avenue location.
The agenda for tonight’s City Council special meeting reveals that declaring a shelter crisis will allow the city to move forward quickly with securing the property by bypassing certain zoning designations. The property will be rented at a rate of $7,000 per month, from December 1, 2009 to March 3, 2010. The special meeting agenda notes that the Department of Health and Human Services will pay the rent and other costs, and then be fully reimbursed by the Long Beach Rescue Mission.
The plan is part of the Winter Shelter Program, which is operated by Los Angeles County.
Plans for the new shelter were announced via a press release from 6th District Councilmember Dee Andres’ office. “There is no reason for anyone in our city to be without shelter, especially in the cold winter months,” Andrews said in a statement.
More Tesla Motors News
In their regular 5:00pm meeting, the City Council will examine Mayor Foster’s recommendation to offer tax incentives to Tesla Motors – worth a total estimated $26 million – to lure the electric carmaker to build their upcoming Model S sedan at a vacant Boeing property on Lakewood Blvd. We covered the issue in detail in this article.
Two weeks ago, however, Downey mayor Mario Guerra announced that a deal between Tesla and Downey was nearly complete. In a phone interview with the lbpost.com on Friday, Guerra indicated that an announcement of some kind will be released today.
“I feel very comfortable in our dealings with Tesla and we will be having an official announcement very shortly,” he said.
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