Using $800 million in state and federal dollars, Project Homekey has created thousands of units across California by funding the purchases of hotels and motels to house homeless people.
Anyone facing a misdemeanor in Long Beach will now be considered for the program if there’s evidence of a mental health condition or substance-abuse disorder.
Long Beach saw a jump in the number of homeless people that died from 2019 to 2020—a trend that was also reported at the county level.
From 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, residents can drop off much-needed items such as sleeping bags, tents and socks at the Expo Arts Center in Bixby Knolls.
Christine Barry founded Ashlee’s Homeless Fund in honor of the Ashlee Armond, who died in an accident in 2014.
For more than a decade, Steffz has had an unstable living situation—bouncing from shared housing to shelter to shelter to shelter.
Cleanups and homeless-outreach that were implemented earlier this year, and had to stop because of the pandemic, have started to pick back up again, but residents are still frustrated and say the problem has only gotten worse.
An extended winter shelter, a new year-round shelter set to open soon and Project Room Key, a program to house the homeless in motels, have helped get vulnerable people off the streets, officials say.
A housing and resource center for homeless individuals in North Long Beach originally slated to open earlier this month was set back. The project is now on track to be operational in September.
The city did not report any new deaths on Thursday.
