In an effort to move people living along the Los Angeles River into housing, the city has agreed to rent out the 60-bed Colonial Motel through the next year.
The $1.7 agreement will pay for rooms to house 60 people at a time, as well as use the parking lot. Health officials say 13 people have already moved into the motel as of Wednesday, with another 20 expected to make their stay by the end of the week. They plan to have all rooms filled by the end of the month.
Once housed there, people will be moved into permanent housing on a rolling basis, with the city’s goal being to move at least 80% of them into a home in a year’s time. Those staying there will take part in coordinated drug programs, job training and other services intended to lead to independent living. The approach acknowledges that putting a roof over someone’s head is only the beginning.
It’s a similar plan to the one the city made last year at the Vagabond Inn, meant to focus on homeless people living around Lincoln Park and the Billie Jean King Main Library. During the program’s duration, 94 people moved into the Vagabond Inn, and 26 were eventually placed in permanent housing, according to city data.
The lease is the latest move since the city last year announced a two-year, $17.4 million plan — $11 million coming from a state grant — to begin housing the roughly 250 people living along the 9.5-mile segment of the L.A. River in city limits.
Officials say the contract follows a nearly yearlong search that began last summer and was poised to move forward with an 18-month lease to rent the 50-room Motel 6 on E. Pacific Coast Highway. But the city said it scrapped this plan over “community concerns about losing a local asset.” This plan is also cheaper; rooms at Colonial Motel will cost $85 per room, per day, while the Motel 6 was expected to cost $131 to $177 per night, or about $4.8 million through the program’s duration.
The Colonial has been used by the county Pathway Home Program since 2024, which offers the same service through a county program, moving the homeless into temporary housing.
“Because the Colonial Motel was already in use for a similar program, the City can provide placements and services quickly,” a city health spokesperson said. The Colonial, though, also has its baggage, having been criticized for unsafe, vermin-ridden conditions when the city placed unhoused people there as part of a pandemic-era voucher program.
Long Beach Homeless Services director Paul Duncan said there are only “a handful” of hotels and motels within city limits that have 50 to 60 rooms, which added to the delay in starting the LA River encampment resolution program.
Travel Lodge Inn, Vagabond Inn, Motel 6, The Colonial Inn and The Cove were all considered in the search.
City data shows shelter space is in high demand, typically at 93% occupancy — over 90% capacity since 2022 — while 99% of its emergency housing vouchers are used.
More than 4,260 people in Long Beach entered interim and permanent housing in 2025. But, city officials said last year that the number of people falling into homelessness was still outpacing their ability to help, leading to a 6.5% increase in the unhoused population. It’s unclear if those numbers have improved since. Long Beach conducted its annual homeless count in January, with results expected in the coming months.