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Six months after scrapping plans to build a tiny homes campus for homeless residents, Long Beach has put the modular homes up for sale.
Starting this week, the city will take offers through Sept. 4 from organizations, cities and counties interested in buying the units outright. City officials say they hope to finish reviewing proposals — possibly do some site visits, if necessary — through next month and have a buyer selected by October.
The request for proposal comes after the City Council voted in February to abandon plans to establish a 33-unit tiny home campus, forcing them to pay back $2.9 million of a $5.6 million state grant they spent on the tiny homes and a citywide search for where to place them.
The 12 mini-shelters — with multiple units in each building — were purchased in bulk for about $2 million in February 2023, but they have remained in storage with their Ventura manufacturer as Long Beach carried out a two-year, $700,000 search for a viable site to place them. Another $146,000 was spent on salaries and wages of those working on the project.
Previous plans had the campus in the parking lot of the Long Beach Multi-Service Center — the access hub for city homelessness programs — before pivoting to a six-acre parcel next to Willow Springs Park. Most recently, officials surveyed a lot at Long Beach City College to use the modular homes as interim housing for students.
But plans continually fell apart, each for different reasons: the first found nearby pollutants and noise that made it unfit for living; a land survey found alarming costs to remove soil and establish utility lines under Willow Springs Park; and the last was rebuffed five days after it was pitched, citing design issues and untenable “state permitting rules” related to on-campus housing.
The prefab units, at 120 square feet each, have seen success across the state as a quick and cheap way to build up shelter capacity with basic amenities like showers, toilets and air conditioning. But they require existing infrastructure and open land, something City Manager Tom Modica previously said is difficult to find in a built-out city like Long Beach.
Now the city is looking to break with the homes in turnkey fashion. In the proposal, the city said it prefers to sell the homes, in a single transaction or parsed to multiple organizations, at a price that at least pays back the money lost in the original purchase.
An ideal proposal, according to the city, must be outright and not factor in any financial or operational help from Long Beach. Preference will be given to local bidders.
Early interest has come from Los Angeles and Orange counties, as well as the cities of Ojai and Redondo Beach. But talks were informal, and no formal interest was expressed, according to a city spokesperson.