Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute any and all documents necessary, including a Purchase and Sale Agreement (PSA), with Eddie N John #1, LLC, a California limited liability company, and Youna Kim, a Sole Proprietor dba Eddie's Liquor #1 (collectively "Seller"), for the purchase of certain real property located at 6841-6845 Atlantic Avenue, Assessor Parcel Numbers 7116-019-029 and -036 (Subject Property), in the amount not to exceed $9,591,540; Authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary for a Lease between the City of Long Beach and Eddie's Liquor #1, for the use of the Subject Property; Adopt Negative Declaration ND-02-19; and Increase appropriations in the General Fund (GF) in the Economic Development Department (ED) by $9,591,540, offset by the sale proceeds from the Broadway Block Site B and transfer of HEAP grant revenue from the Health Fund (SR 130). (District 9)
Report from Economic Development and Health and Human Services. Recommendation to authorize City Manager to execute all documents necessary with Eddie and John number one and Eddie's Liquor Number one for the purchase of certain real property located at 684136845 Atlantic Avenue in the amount not to exceed 9,000,591 540 and execute a lease between the city of Long Beach and Eddie's liquor. Number one for the use of the subject property District nine. I think I'm going to turn this over to Mr. West. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is a result of at least over a year of negotiations to try to impact our homelessness issue here in the city of Long Beach by creating not only a winter shelter or rainy day shelter, but a year round shelter. We've been working very closely with the property owner there, as well as Councilmember Richardson in the neighborhood. So at this stage, I'm going to turn this over to our director of Health and Human Services, Kelly Collopy, who will be joined by Mary Torres with John Kiser, the Director of Economic Development. So Kelly. John Castle. I'm sorry. Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. On July 24th, the Council approved an item requesting a city staff report on revenue options to address local homelessness and housing shortages in the city. And in August, city staff presented a strategy to create additional housing and respond to homeless issues. On that night, multiple council actions were taken and those included, among others, an analysis detailing a strategy for identifying potential revenue and a plan to use recently received state funding toward the purchase of a facility that would be utilized as a year round homeless shelter. The subject property that we're discussing tonight was used in the past as a winter shelter by the city. This is located at 684136845 Atlantic Avenue as a potential site for the development of a year round shelter, as well as a long term plan for the state of the art village style campus for homeless services and support. The subject property is 99,000 square feet total, with three buildings located on the property of a total of 28,000 square feet. The property is located adjacent to the Los Angeles Riverwalk. Southern California Edison, right of way and adjacent property owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Staff has negotiated the sale of the property for an all inclusive price not to exceed $9,491,540, which includes the land and improvements. The liquor license for the. The existing liquor store. Inventory, furniture, fixtures and equipment. Goodwill and compensation for relocation benefits, which were acquired by state law. As part of the sale, the seller has requested to occupy the front structure. The liquor store as a lessee from close of escrow until January 5th of 2020. Upon termination of the lease, the third party will conduct a review of the inventory and city will compensate the seller for an amount not to exceed $400,000, which is included in the purchase price that's being recommended tonight. The year round shelter is is what we're looking at as the first stage of this project. City staff, including the Health and Human Services Department, will work with the community and partner agencies to develop a case study and example for a village style homeless services campus. On November 13th of 2018, the City Council authorized the city manager to execute an agreement to receive and expend grant funding from the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council in the amount of $9,387,420 for homeless emergency aid program. Continuum of care allocation of the amount awarded 8 million is designated for a year round shelter and has been appropriated in the health fund in the Health and Human Services Department. So to cover the fiscal impact. The sales expense includes the total acquisition cost of the property, which will not exceed $9.5 million. Approximately 9.4 million approximately is the all inclusive purchase price of the subject property, with approximately $100,000 anticipated for acquisition related costs. The funding sources that staff has identified for this acquisition includes $8 million that were appropriated in the Health and Human Services Department as part of the heat funding grant and staff recommends funding the remaining 1.5 million $1,591,540 from proceeds from a recently closed sale of the Broadway block property site B, which is located on Broadway and Long Beach Boulevard. In addition, there will be less revenue associated with the liquor store for the remainder of the year of $6,000 per month, and that will accrue to the general fund in the Economic Development Department to help offset some of these administrative costs associated with the transaction. Finally the recommendations staff recommends approval of the purchase of 684126845 Atlantic Avenue and the execution of a lease for the subject property. The recommendations are as follows Authorize the city manager or designee to execute any and all documents necessary, including a purchase and sale agreement with Eddie and John Number one LLC, a California limited liability company and unit. Kim, a sole proprietor. Otherwise known as Eddie's Liquor. Number one for the purchase of certain real property located at the Subject Property Address, and the amount is not to exceed $9,591,540. Additionally authorize the city manager as designee to execute all documents necessary for a lease between the city of Long Beach and Edy's liquor number one for the use of the subject property. Recommendation three adopt a negative declaration and be 0 to 19 and increase the appropriations in the general fund in the Economic Development Department by $9,591,540, offset by the sale proceeds from the Broadway block site B and transfer of hip grant revenue from the health fund. At this time, I'd like to conclude my report, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Why don't we? Is is is Ms.. Collopy also adding to this or it just that piece? Good evening. I'd like to share a little bit about ah the shelter opportunity. Um, so within the Everyone Home Long Beach Task Force report, we determined that there is a need for approximately 500 shelter beds across our city. Within that report, the report, you know, made a recommendation. And really a goal is to build at least 200 shelter beds and expand in the city in the next few years. And this shelter, we're looking to have 125 beds, which really creates a lot of progress for us. It would be the first municipally owned year round shelter that we have had in the city of Long Beach for many, many years. And the site has operated as the winter shelter. So that within the shelter what we see is a space for adult male and female adults. There's opportunities to have families are on the street. Well, it's not a family shelter. It's an opportunity for family to to participate, to come in until we can connect them to a family shelter system, provide jobs or a job and employment training, case management. There'll be, you know, showers and the opportunity for meals and just really the host of social services that are needed to be able to connect people to supports to help them to be successful. So we are we're very excited about this opportunity is certainly need within the city. And I would like to say that I've had an opportunity to talk to many from the Hamilton neighborhood in the surrounding. And we've had very just really kind conversations and very good questions. And I truly appreciate the many that I see here in the audience as the support. But and that also I appreciate, you know, all that's been able to do that we've been able to have in the conversations and to express concerns and to be able to address those as well. So with that, I conclude my report and I'm open to questions as well. Thank you. I know we have we do have a motion in a second. I'm going to make some some comments as well. And then I'm not sure if. Councilman, did you want to go do you wanna go to the public first? Okay. And then we'll turn over to Councilmember Richardson. So I want to I just want to just begin by just noting that I think we're all aware that homelessness is a statewide crisis that we're all facing across the state of California. It is certainly the the number one challenge, human challenge that we face here in the city of Long Beach. And I think if you talked and spoke with most cities, they would all say the same. This is not a city. This is not a challenge that just exists anymore in urban communities. But it is up and down the state of California, Long Beach, as a as a city, I think as a city council has also identified this at the top of our list of something that's important to us. We understand the incredible need for shelter, for people to have access to not being on the sidewalk. Honestly, some of the the signs that are there. And we're very much committed to it. And I want to just begin by by noting a few things. I'm really proud that that the City Council has adopted and passed numerous initiatives around homelessness. The Everyone at Home Task Force, which was referenced by Ms.. Collopy, was a a almost year long process that was led by Jen Connelly at Cal State Long Beach. And I see Andy Kerr, who was a vice chair and other members of that task force that were here as well. And a big part of that task force was setting out targets and also talking about the larger goals of how we solve homelessness across our community. One of the key components of the task force recommendations, as was also and I mentioned this at the state of the city about a year ago as well, was to ensure that we have we set a goal of trying to acquire 200 more shelter beds across across the city. This is something that we we know as a city, we we have needed. But it was also good to see that reinforced by the professionals, the service providers, the academics, including folks that have experience homelessness, which are also on the task force. And it was it was good to see that a recommendation. So tonight's proposal gets us to 125. And I think that's a huge step forward in looking at those recommendations and seeing the importance of those as well. I also think it's important to recognize, because we're back at the table again this year, this purchase is almost going to be done entirely because the state of California and the governor, Jerry Brown, at the time provided significant resources to the city of Long Beach, about over $10 million to do additional work on issues around homelessness. I believe, Mr. Hoppy, that 8 million of those dollars is going to actually purchase this project. Is that right? 8 million. That's true. And that and I want to and I and I want to thank and I think it's important I want to thank the Big Ten Mayors Group which sponsored those those resources and that legislation and lobbied the governor to provide this additional funding for cities. I say that because, well, we were a great recipient of those dollars, actually allowed us to. The buy the shelter or this land. We're back at the table this year. And we're hopeful that that the governor currently and the mayors are back lobbying for a second year of this type of funding so that we can continue to do this kind of work. And so I'm just grateful to the leader of that group, which was Darrell Steinberg out of Sacramento, who was the essential key in leading us and getting this additional funding for this purchase. And again, I want to and I do want to thank this city entire city council for their commitment to this issue and for all the work that's been occurring at this dais and at the staff level. But I especially want to thank, first and foremost the North Long Beach neighborhood and the community. What I have seen from the north Long Beach neighbors and the community, honestly, has been so moving and so touching to see how you have all stepped forward and embraced what will be a campus that is going to be there to help people and to help those people in our community that that need our help so desperately. And you see this happen in other cities, in other places. And I've seen the reaction that other neighbor neighborhoods and other cities and other communities have had to similar projects. And what you all have displayed is is inspiring. And I'm so proud I'm so proud to be mayor of a city where folks like all of you are stepping up and being part of the solution. So thank you for all the work and the advocacy that you have all done. And I also, of course, as part of that, I do want to thank Councilmember Richardson. It is not easy for elected officials to say, yes, we welcome these facilities and provide leadership on these on these issues. And I think he's done a stellar job of working with all of you and the many meetings that have happened for this site. And I want to thank him for that as well. And I also want to thank the county of Los Angeles and Supervisor Janice Hahn, who is going to be a great partner in ensuring that there's funds to maintain the actual operations of this site as we move forward. And there's a big commitment from the county on that issue as well. And so there's a lot of thank you that will go around tonight. There's a lot of work that still needs to be done. But I think that it's important that we recognize all of the folks that have been involved this, this, this, this body as a city council, but also the staff. You guys have done a great job of getting us to this point and this negotiations as well as I want to thank the property owners who have also done a great job of being partners with us on this site. And so just thank you to all I know. We have a big discussion tonight, but I am really proud that we're here at really what is a turning point, I think, for our ability to try to find solutions to this real challenge. So thank you. And with that, Councilman Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I'll say. You know, it's hard to say thank you right now because this is the beginning of a large, large undertaking, a large endeavor. And I don't want to minimize that. I want to be completely honest with North Palm Beach community. And I want to thank you for, frankly, stepping up and allowing us to even begin this conversation. So thank you to all the leaders who have talked with us, met with us and given us the preliminary okay to even get started with this conversation. But by no means is this the end of the discussion. This is the beginning. So have a lot of comments and a lot of questions. Many of these questions are questions that were raised to me, and I think that they should be elevated here at this discussion, even if just so much as to save a question that you might be asking at the dais. Maybe we can answer some of those questions here for you today. So I just want to acknowledge all the different partners and residents who are here, you know, to get their questions answered, to express support. And all the partners have really stepped up to help organize this effort, both conducting outreach on next door to let people know that this is happening. People who have talked to their neighborhood associations. I see signs that says beds, not sidewalks. Those in print themselves don't acknowledge the the United Way folks who have stepped up to really help drive this conversation. You know, recognize in the work that's happening around everyone home, which is sort of our our hallmark for our homelessness campaign here in Long Beach and a lot of the work that's happening around our economic inclusion work . I see a lot of intersectionality here. A lot of the efforts that we're working on in the city are aligning to really talk about this conversation of inclusion and access and working together. And that's really what I see here tonight. Okay, so a few things. So let's see where I want to start here. Okay. So this has been an ongoing conversation for about eight years in North Palm Beach. This is not a new conversation. I began eight years ago when my predecessor, Councilman Neal, took on the winter shelter when the site was at the old West Coast Choppers site, the Jesse James site. And then for whatever happened, it moved to North Long Beach and we partnered with the rescue mission and had been there for a number of years. So this has been an ongoing conversation with North Long Beach community. We all know the mayor's done a good job at sort of underscoring the stakes here with the homelessness this homelessness issue. We've recorded more than 1800 people living on our vehicles, on our streets or in transitional and emergency units. But who are these people? Who are we actually talking about? There's a lot of expectations that it's all, you know, drug addicts and people with mental health issues. That's a part of it. But the great deal of homelessness is actually caused by poverty, and it can impact a great many of us here in Long Beach. So who are we talking about? So currently, half of our Long Beach residents are rent burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Half of the people who live in Long Beach, a quarter of the adults in Long Beach working full time, live within 200% of the poverty line. So these are our neighbors. A quarter over and over 20,000 Long Beach households are precariously housed. We have overcrowded units. We have agent, aged, housing stock, a lack of new and affordable residential development. And all of that is at the root. These are root causes for the homelessness in the housing insecurity issue. Are homeless population includes working families and includes college students and includes veterans? And these are very uncertain times. You know, we just watched, as, you know, as a number of federal employees all around the country went 35 days without payment. Right. So the reality is this can happen to anyone. And it's a very complex issue that can affect anyone. The cost of living is high. Our vacancy rates are low. The social services net is feeble, limiting our ability to support every homeless person in Long Beach. So we had a conversation with some of the Hamilton neighbors where we talked about, hey, this might be a possibility, a reality about six months ago. And then when the when the property owners said, yes, we're willing to move forward with the whole kit and caboodle, the liquor store and everything. We sat down with them again and said, this is a possibility. Can we expand this conversation and sort of include some of the larger District nine North Long Beach leaders? We did. So we expanded the conversation to the North Long Beach Leadership Council and some of our education leaders like like you would walk, Jolene Talk and Megan Kerr. We had a conversation at our District nine field office, the old fire station. This included the District nine commissioners and every neighborhood association who was invited. The Leadership Council was invited to this conversation. Kelly Colby was there, a director of health department, a director of economic development was there. And we had a honestly, a really inspirational conversation about really about what it needs, what we need to do to actually address this issue. And then last night, you know, there was a lot of chatter on next door. And fortunately, one family stepped up and said, you know, can we talk? And we reached out and we said we set up to go over to their home last night. And so I want to thank the Bass family for opening up their home. We went to their home last night and talked for about 2 hours. Kelly Colby joined us. John Keisler joined us. We had a great old time. We talked about a number of things. We found a lot of things we had in common. But the main takeaway and we'll talk about some of the things, but the main takeaway from that discussion was really centered on honesty and building a foundation of trust with this community. There's a reason why not a lot of neighborhoods are stepping up on this issue. And in North Lawn Beach. I'll tell you, I was reminded last night and over the course of the last few weeks, I was reminded of a number of instances where we did not deliver for North Long Beach in the nineties, when the police department was contracted out to the sheriff's wharf, Long Beach felt abandoned. In the year 2010, when our rescue was cut north Long Beach excuse me, Mr. Mayor, it was really hard to focus in 2010 when the police when the fire rescue was cut North Long Beach felt abandoned. These things we need to address and actually talk about. Frankly, for the past eight years, we've had this conversation about homelessness. In the context of the emergency shelter. For eight years now, North Palm Beach has welcomed busloads of individuals from around town and sheltered these individuals through the winter. Both districts, nine and eight, have done this using the Atlantic Farms site for six out of those eight years. Now the problem with it, and they've done it willingly, the neighborhood association stepped up if talked with folks. We worked with the health department has done a great job. But the question is never asked and the opportunity was never been given to these residents is a question that many neighborhoods take for granted. That question is, if a shelter were placed in your neighborhood, what would your neighborhood need to make it successful? And because we've been operating every year on an emergency basis, North Long Beach has never been asked that question. What does North Zombies need to make this shelter operation successful? And so by moving forward tonight, we get to finally ask that question what does North Palm Beach need to make this work? Frankly, this is not a lot just at stake for North Lawn Beach. There's a lot at stake for the whole city. Here's why. This is a test everybody's watching. There are key performance indicators that we need to monitor. Is the property value in the neighborhood going to increase at a faster, slower rate than other neighborhoods? Everywhere is increasing is an increase at a faster, slower rate if we add permanent housing support. What's the impact? How do we track public safety and the investment, the commitment to public safety? How do we track that key performance indicator? Right. The amount of homelessness in and around the shelter that counts. How do we track that key performance indicator? If we can demonstrate that this can work by connecting with wraparound services and really making the investments necessary, then maybe we can explore additional sites. The report tells us that there were, you know, 200 somehow shelter beds needed. We have 275 in the city. It's an additional 125. We're going to need 7500 more shelter beds in the city to make this work. So this isn't the end all be all solution for the city, but it's at this is at stake for all of us to make sure this works. So in that conversation with the residents, a number of a number of things came up that are that we need to talk about. So by approving this, this allows us to do a few things. So one, we're able to acquire and cancel the liquor license. There've been a lot of questions about, yes, you're acquiring liquor license. What's the intent? The intent is to surrender it. It will not be transferred to another site. The liquor license is being acquired. There's been a prior to the North Flambeaux committee for a long time. It will be surrendered. That's that's the goal here. We're not just committing to a shelter. We're committing to doing the hard work and investigating wraparound services and the quality of life mechanisms needed to make this a center that works not just for the homeless community, but the community at large in the north of 91 area that is, you know, has issues in terms of access to open space and other things. So we're going explore those things and partnerships with L.A. River, partnerships with some of the L.A. County equestrian facilities, partnerships with Southern California Edison, and the right away that's adjacent. We're going to support those things. And we're going to and we're going to do what's necessary to make sure that the community is involved through this whole process. So some of the topics have come up through this conversation is, one, we need to make sure we're tracking the key performance indicators to make sure we fully understand the impact and that we can be very transparent and open about that process. With respect to, again, property values, public safety and homeless activity surrounding the area. We need to make sure that there's an ongoing neighborhood advisory committee directly connected to the permanent shelter to ensure stakeholder engagement for the long term. We need to make sure that there is a well vetted out, detailed security plan and safety plan associated with the campus and procedures for how people, how the intake process goes. And if someone rejects services, what happens is they wander off into the neighborhood. These are very legitimate questions that we want to make sure we have well vetted out and thought out solutions to make sure that these things are addressed. We want to talk about traffic calming measures. We know that Atlantic Avenue, north of the 91 Freeway, doesn't have any traffic signals. And when it veers off and turns into that V, there's it's very difficult to make that left turn. And that's right where the entrance to this site would be. So we have to evaluate traffic calming. Traffic calming measures. These are some of the things offsite to make it make sense as a site. We have to explore lighting in the area. They're very dim areas and we have to explore the investments into lighting and those things. We have to get creative about public safety deployment. It gets you know, there are challenges where we you know, in Northland, we should border Lakewood, Bellflower, Paramount, Rancho Dominguez, Compton. And I remember circumstances where a crime happens in one city and they run into the other city who's, you know, whose job is it was the question. All those things the community needs to be comfortable in the conversation, on response. What response times? We need to make sure that we're on top of those and understand what the real emergency response times are in that area. We need to be creative about, you know, we just funded a quality of life position. That's a police officer who's dedicated to homeless services in North Palm Beach, which is funded this. What is the relationship between the quality of life officer and the new shelter, the potential shelter? Can we create space for this officer? What's the relationship between we have a met team. A mental health evaluation team in our police department is four, right? What's the relationship with one of these met teams with the North Miami shelter? What is the relationship here? What's that going to look like? There are a number of different operations. They all need to be vetted out as a part of this conversation. What about clean team safety? Right. We have a clean team in the city. You know, we've got special districts in the city. We should look at what's required in terms of cleaning up the site, making sure that there's services to keep it, keep the site clean, safe team is private security. Eyes on, you know, eyes on the street. These things are available in our business improvement districts. We should explore those types of things around our shelters. Totally possible. I created the business improvement district. Others have. It's possible we can explore this. And so there's a number of things we need to explore which tells us we need to make sure that we have a process to go through that, to vet all of these things. So at this point, I'm going to ask a few questions of staff. So first, there was a lot of conversation about the value, and I think you did a good job outlining this. But I want to elevate this is, you know, this conversation. Can you talk about the the appraisal when that appraisal will be released, what the value of the price is based on? And in just for a walk us through that that thing in case there are questions. So Mr. Keisler, would you mind walking us through the transaction a bit? Councilmember Happy to. So, so the city, whenever conducting an acquisition of a property, will contract with a third party appraiser who has the proper certifications. In this case, we contracted with Harran in MM, a local real estate appraiser from Southern California, and they followed all of the uniform standards of professional appraisal practice. So this is a national standard and they certify these appraisals. They're willing to to to back them up in court if necessary. And so the methodology used for this particular appraisal, because this property includes a unique set of buildings, a retail space, the liquor store and interest in industrial space, which is the warehouse and a residential space on the same campus. This was a little bit unique, and so there were two primary methodologies that were used to provide what's called a reconciled fair market value of both the sales comparison, a comparison of similar properties, similar uses in the, in the in the vicinity, as well as what's called an income capitalization appraisal. And what that means essentially is what can what kind of revenue can be derived from this type of property, given that it has all three uses associated with it. And so the appraiser in this case had spent a great deal of time looking at 21 individual sales or leases that had been executed between 2016 and 2018 and used that as a basis to come up with both the sales comparison and income capitalization value for the property. Essentially what we have is about 28,000 square feet of Leasable space over the last four years or so. Really what we've seen in the city is a acceleration or an increase in value, particularly around the Long Beach and the Port of Long Beach when it comes to industrial spaces in particular. But generally real estate has become much more valuable throughout the city. So taking that all into account, the appraiser developed the income capitalization value and sales comparison value. It comes out to be about $250 per square foot, which is somewhat in the middle, slightly above middle of of where these types of properties are. In the North Long Beach submarket, we saw properties, in fact, which is included in the appraisal. All of this, of course, will be a matter of public record after the close of the sale, which means the close of escrow for us and available to the public after March May 31st. But ultimately, I'm happy to answer any questions about how they derived the $7.54 million purchase price recommendation. Okay. So the seven and a half to sum it up. Vacancy rate is down. There's increased demand in the port area. And with the changes in the cannabis law, all of those created additional demand that made warehouses a little bit more attractive in the community that sum it up. A lot more attractive. In fact, the cannabis ordinance which was passed about mid 2018, that put an incredible value on industrial properties located in what's called the eligible buffer zone. So we're seeing this kind of price pressure in Long Beach in all of our industrial areas, areas that are away from schools and parks and other things. And it's it's also put pressure on on the Long Beach industrial market, because we're one of the only cities in the region that allows for this use. So we've seen a whole new market evolve and really place their attention on the city of Long Beach. So what about relocation or if, you know, are we saving money by not going through eminent domain? How does this compare to if we did process, as we've done in the past during the redevelopment? How does this compare to that? Yeah, so so as you know, there are a number of requirements. Any time the government makes a purchase of private property, when we solicit purchase, we have by state law the responsibility to do relocation benefits. We have to pay for inventory and furniture and other things, equipment and other property of the owner. So that that actually the the market based appraisal is seven and a half million. But the other roughly $2 million in this this particular acquisition will cover relocation of the tenants. So we not only have the residential property where they have relocation benefits under state law, but the the liquor store in this case decided to go with an all in settlement instead in lieu of relocation. So that that actually saves us a tremendous amount of time and resources to provide for in-kind relocation advisory services, possible either lease or purchase of other property. And of course, the price for the liquor license, which was a priority for us and given that we want to focus on health services rather than alcohol, so our all in price settlement was was an option for this this owner. If this had gone down the path of eminent domain, we would have added significant more time, maybe 12 to 18 months, a tremendous amount of legal fees. We probably would have had to also accept, you know, an appraisal from the attorneys of the the the property owner and then probably have some sort of resolution or adjudication of the final settlement. So this saves us a tremendous amount of time and a tremendous amount of cost by doing. And we feel like the resident business owner, these are all members of our community. So we really love when we can do a cooperative sale and make everybody whole great. So thank you for walking us through that once more. And again, this would have been possible if we didn't have those cheap dollars will state down the $8 million and $8, is that right? Yeah, that's correct. We actually it broke this this particular acquisition. There's there's two pieces. The state funding covers the vast majority of the cost. And then fortunately, as we have sold properties from our former redevelopment agency, as well as some properties that are associated, we've been able to generate some proceeds and that that will help from the sale of a recent property in the downtown will help us to to finalize this deal. So so both funding sources, the city and the state are helping to make this work. Great. Thank you. I think some of the questions have been raised, been fair, very fair. And, you know, we've done our diligence to make sure that we we address those questions and that we talk about when the appraisal will be released and that justification. We talk about that. I did mention that we we we we never release our appraisal publicly during negotiations. And in terms of of the sales process, we will be executing a purchase and sale agreement, but that's just 1/1 step. So we'll go through a process of about a 90 day escrow, would conduct a due diligence. We'll look at any environmental or engineering issues. We'll make sure that both parties are doing what they said they would do, and then we'll likely close escrow at the end of May. So May 31st, if we both satisfy the requirements of the purchase and sale agreement, then we would make the appraisal a matter of public record because during this time it's still a matter of negotiations. And finally, there are there is, you know, personal information of the seller, the property owner, other people that have owned the property over the course of its history. And so we'll have to look at making sure that we protect their their identity and their information as well. So after May 31st, hopefully we'll be able to close escrow and release all of this to the public. All right. So we're following all of the laws, the Public Records Act laws that we're required to follow. We're answering all the question, the reasonable questions. There are some, you know, ridiculous questions out there that really I don't believe that the pressure should have run, implying that, you know, the council has a financial stake. Just so you all know, I have no financial stake in this. This is a big undertaking. I don't I don't make money off of this, and neither does Mr. Keisler. Is that right? Mr. Keisler, you have no financial stake in this? That's correct. We have no conflict of interest. This is about walking the talk. The North Long Beach has had this shelter for eight years and we haven't make the investments necessary to do it right. That's what this is about, you know, finally making good and building some honesty and building truth and congruence with our community. Some trust. That's what this is about. Okay. So next, let's talk about the future now. So we move forward tonight. I really see that there's sort of two paths to conversations. One is really focused on the operation of the shelter. What does that look like? How are we going to engage with it? How are we going to be able to scope it? So I really see one timeline there. And then there's a conversation that's really about real estate and services, wraparound services, you know, what are the opportunities for affordable housing? Who are the partners we can bring to the table? Lobby, City College and Lobby State have both reached out interested in being a part of this. Some of the best affordable housing developers in the city have reached out expressing support. Nonprofit groups have reached out expressing support. Southern California Edison is wants to meet with us about partnerships with the with the right away. The county's been a tremendous partner and so that's a very separate conversation about the highest and best vision and how we can really be comprehensive about this. So it might get confusing since there's two processes in the way I really want to sort of understand it, narrow it down is that Kelly Colby in the Health Department leads the conversation on the shelter. The broader piece is really Mr. Kaiser in the Economic Development Department, but Mr. Keisler, Ms.. Collopy, if you could just shed some light on what you see as potential process and next steps in terms of engaging the community and both of these conversations. Certainly. So we have been spending a lot of time thinking about what are the best practices for a year round shelter. And so what we'd like to be able to do is to bring what you know, what we've been thinking in terms of what those practices would be. And I've shared, you know, some the different service models than others with you along the way. But the other piece was certainly to have a community a community volunteer group or a sort of a group that would be willing to engage with us about what would you need to make sure that you feel that this success is successful in the community? What would you need to feel like? You know that the community has supported through the process and also as as it is being implemented, which our goal is to have it open before June one, 2022. That's about a year, year and a half. To really design the rest of this before it fully opened is that, you know, if you see things that aren't working for the community, that you are in contact with us as the as the city, so that we can help support and make sure that you are comfortable moving forward and be able to really engage in that back and forth. So we'll certainly be looking for a group who is willing to work with us in that process moving forward. Thank you. John, the the separate visioning process. Yes. Council members are typically when when we purchase a property and we're looking to develop that property will engage in in both a visioning process which will involve extensive community engagement, will request information from various potential partners that could include the nonprofit, academic, private sector, capital funding agencies, even governmental agencies like the county or the state. And we'll identify a whole process which will put in writing and recommendation to our city manager to then bring back to the Council for review. Ultimately, what we hope to do is through that process, get a sense of what's possible and then put those specifications into some sort of request for proposals or requests for letters of interest from potential developers. That usually serves as a way to attract capital, as well as the private sector and nonprofit service providers and developers that can help the city respond to the community's needs. And I think that ultimately it's about getting a really robust list of both the concerns as well as the opportunities from the community that will drive the creativity and ultimately the project that we're able to develop in partnership. Okay. Well, I'm prepared to I'm prepared to move forward. So so Kelly and John, thank you both for being so engaging over the last these last few months on this conversation. A number of the council members I know, some of them are sitting here, but Councilwoman Mongeau and Councilwoman Gonzalez both reached out this week just to say , hey, Councilmember, you know, I want to just express my support for this. Thank you for stepping up. So those council members are reached out. Thank you for for for really your commitment to this and to making sure that the priorities of North Palm Beach community are met and not caught up in sort of the political rhetoric around this issue. But we're really being very sincere about what this is and how we address it. So so I want to thank you to all those council members who stepped up. And so so I want to go ahead, move forward, want to make the staff recommendation. And I want to add two things reflective of what we talked about tonight. So, one, I would like to see a report in the next 30 days just outlining what this process looks like. Specifically, two things. One, the robust community outreach process, specifically related to the operations of the shelter itself. And then secondly, what the process would look like was codified the process, what it would look like for the visioning, what that task force could look like, who the partners might be, what that timeline for the development looks like. And and, you know, now I want to see who those people might be. They've reached out to this formalized process to be engaged. Is it is it, you know, the educational institutions? Is it the housing, the development, you know, the affordable housing world? Is it service providers? Is it Edison, who these people are? Let's let's put some some color to this and and actually establish this task force. So, again, my motion is a staff recommendation with a report on how we're going to approach these two specific areas, the community outreach process associated with the shelter operations, and secondly, the process associated with the larger visioning for this site. So thank you to the entire city council, the mayor and everyone, and let's go ahead and support this. And then, Mr. Mayor, I want to, at this point, I think, would be a good time. These people have waited they've they've heard these questions. And I think we should go to public comment. I think that Summer Pearce is good with that. So we will go ahead and do public comment. So please come forward if you have public comment on this item. Very good to address on file. It's certainly a commendable program. And I'm wondering whether or not. A portion of the monies could be used for something I like to suggest, and if not, get the monies for that. Because if you're going to bring in and house people there, what do you you want to make sure that the water is clean, uncontaminated. Now, obviously, there is a reference before there's something in the ninth district. It might be in the water. That has led to the disease in demented thinking. Manifested by the championing of a degenerate, demented, demented individual such as Snoop Dogg. When you have that type of mentality. There's something wrong, and you certainly don't want to. Ruin the project. And it's a commendable project by bringing people in. If there's something in the water in the ninth district. So what you should do is establish the fact that there is nothing wrong with the water. I can't think of any other reason what would engender such disease and demand thinking. Particularly relative to the treatment of women. And again, as I point out, look what happened to the head of CBS, period. I don't know what the answer is, but there's certainly something degenerate. Unchecked in the ninth District. And that needs to be found. So let's find it. Find it out. It's maybe it isn't that. But right now, I can't think of any other alternative. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to go ahead. And also because the amount of speakers that are here and listeners, any objection from the city council, we're going to go to 90 seconds, four for four for each speaker. But we said 2 minutes. We can go to 2 minutes. So we're going to add 2 minutes for each speaker. Mrs.. Any objection and then from the council and then we'll begin. And if we have, you know, an hour and a half plus of public comments, I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak. And so we'll go down to 2 minutes. And then if we need to go down further, we'll go from there, please. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor. Members of the City Council. Councilman Richardson. I applaud the City Council and the initiative of this government to take on an issue that is unpopular. My wife and I have been homeless in homeless outreach for upwards of five years now here in the city of Long Beach. We've served in the San Gabriel Valley, and we've never. Seen the kind of hope that we've seen here tonight. We salute Councilman Richardson for this initiative and a city that is not afraid to take on. The events and. And the circumstances that get to the heart of the most vulnerable in our society. And I, I think you have the politics and the economics figured out. But when you go to when you go to ask for volunteers in the community, we stand and we support you. And my wife told me not to get too winded. Tonight, I have a habit of getting loud and long. So thanks for taking it down to 90 seconds, Mr. Mayor. But I will leave you with this. Because I think the heartbeat of Long Beach is. Strong. I leave with you the words of Mother Teresa. Enough words. Let them see what we do. God bless you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Mayor and City Council. I'm Linda Chico. I'm the field deputy for L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn. As you all know, homelessness has been a priority for Supervisor Hahn. And while we're very happy and proud to see the winter shelters that have opened up throughout the county, we know homelessness is not seasonal. And so she applauds the efforts of the city leaders and the community in North Long Beach for opening up this conversation about having a year long shelter. So she's asked me to come here today to read into record a letter of support. Dear Mayor Garcia, I'm writing in support of item 23 On Your Agenda, which recommends the purchase of a property in North Long Beach to be utilized for homeless housing and services. This will be a facility where individuals can have a safe, stable place to live while receiving wraparound services, health care and job training. And the County of Los Angeles is committed to provide $3.4 million in Measure H funding to improve the interior of the facility and cover operational costs. I am very pleased that the county is collaborating with the city on this important project and I'm confident it will get people off the streets and connect them with the help that they need. Thank you. Is here for supervisor, huh? Thank you very much, Supervisor Hahn. Next. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor Garcia, Councilman Richardson and councilmembers. I'm Dr. Elisa. Nicholas. I'm the CEO of the Children's Clinic, serving children in their families. And as you probably know, TCC is actively. Involved in serving the homeless. And we do. So with great heart, great quality and are very, very humbled to do this. We serve 1300 homeless right now in 6000 visits, where at your multi-service center or at century villages of Cabrillo? We have a mobile. Clinic that goes to the Long Beach Rescue mission. And Christian Outreach in action. And we are working on another project on Walnut to have both housing and health care together. We are very supportive of this work. We look to partner with you and I really commend you for everything you're doing. We now have homeless newborns coming to us in our selected home visiting. We have families that we can't find housing for suicidal teens. They're left out to the street and we have a. Lot of work and we're going in the right direction. And I want to thank you for all your work and we will be with you and really want to work on this with you. And I commend the health department in the city and I'm very honored to work in the city and we've been around for 80 years now. So this is a great time for us to be working here. So thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Tom Stout, Mayor Council. My problem is with the cost. And, you know, you've tried to explain it and I just don't really buy into it. I don't know anybody's property. If you own a home or a piece of property in Long Beach that's gone up five fold in the last five years. 2 million to 7 million. Come on. The guy won the lottery. That's not the only. Cos and another three and a half million. I don't think that's going to be anywhere near adequate to remodel that place and make it functional. Plus, the ongoing expenses have to be somewhere around $2. Million a year. Where is that going to come from? So there's a lot of costs that I don't think you're really getting into. And it seems like when the city sells property taxpayer assets, you always seem to sell on below market value. It's a great deal for developers. They seem to be the city's best friends. When you the city buys property, we overpay the person that we're buying it from. This is an example, just like the other project in North Long Beach. I think redevelopment pays five or $7 million for the property, sold it to the developers for 2.1 million, then gave them $1,000,000 discount just before the sale. Great. If you're a developer, not if you're a taxpayer. And why only one appraisal? You can. You don't have to make it public. But why not have more than one appraisal? It's a lot of money. And. Is the person that's doing the appraise it. It seems like whoever the city hires whether it's a consultant. Or an appraisal. They always come up with the conclusion that the city wanted. I mean, it's like a done deal. So what you tell them this is what we want to do. Thank you very much. Inclusion Speaker, please. And if the cannabis guys will. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our time is up. Next speaker, please note my. Good evening. Mayor Garcia and council members. My name is Ogden Bass. My family and I have lived in North Long Beach on Atlantic Place and the same residents for over 40 years. I want to commend you for taking up the challenge to help. The least of these the homeless in our city. I want to thank Councilwoman Richardson for meeting with us and a few of our neighbors last night. We have had an influx of homelessness in our neighborhood, and we are aware that this is a growing problem throughout the city. That notwithstanding, I would ask the Council to consider a few things. One, that North Long Beach is not the only area in the city to bear. This worthy cause. But other parts of the city are also. Will be putting in facilities to support the homeless in their area because the site is located in our community. We would ask that the site be prioritized for women and children and families because the because of the proximity to families and schools in our neighborhood, we would ask that no tents. Be allowed on the street or on the sidewalk and in the adjacent areas. We would ask that motorhomes of people that do not reside in the city. Not be allowed to park in the area, that there will be a greater invisible, more visible police presence in the area, and that more streetlights. Will be put in in the surrounding. Areas and neighborhoods. These are just a few of the items and concerns from our neighbors. We look forward to working with Councilman Richardson to further. Address these issues. And we want it to be successful. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Ian Patton and I'm the executive director of the Long Beach Reform Coalition, which is a collection of eight civic reform minded organizations. We raised some objections to just really the process here, but I want to make it clear, we totally stand in solidarity with the goal. We agree with everyone here, for everyone in we have a crisis in the city in terms of homelessness. But our purpose as an organization is government transparency and accountability. So we. Think that this should be an. Open process. And when you have certain red flags, like a property that sold for $2 million, the city is paying 7.5 million, according to an appraisal. And we had to kind of pry that out of the city and give a lot. You know, John Keesler is great to work with. No complaint about him whatsoever, but we have to kind of force this information free. And then the remaining 2 million is apparently a valuation on the business. That seems like a crazy valuation on a small liquor store business. So we feel that if the public had the appraisal, then we would know we would be able to judge whether this is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds. And frankly, there's no reason that you could redact some personal information. There's just no reason not to. Release that appraisal because. The city is it shouldn't be paying more or less than the fair market value. It shouldn't be that kind of negotiation. The last thing I need to say, which is really important, is that last night Reverend Jim Lewis contacted me. He's the former CEO of the Long Beach Rescue mission. He said this is not the place to do this. He said you can quote him. It's just not the right place. It's a misuse of taxpayer money. He knows more about this site than anybody. He worked there. He was the CEO of the rescue mission. And he says it is not worth this amount to pay. Thank you very much. Thanks, Speaker, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm Reverend Leon Wood. I'm a Long Beach resident. What I wanted to say is that I really thank you both for your efforts and serving the homeless. What I'm hearing tonight sometimes is the absence. What we're talking about is men, women and children who need assistance. They need love. They need care. We also, if we give them the kind of love and care that they. Need, many will. Become successful. And so we can talk about property, we can talk about money, but we're talking about human beings, God's children. And we should be very, very devoted to caring for people and whatever it costs to save the lives of children, men and women. That's what we should try to accomplish. So thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hi, I'm Janice. Bass, the wife of Ogden Bass, who just spoke a moment ago. We live on North Atlantic Place. We were fortunate. Enough to meet with Rex Richardson and John and Kelly and some support staff as well. Things got quite heated on our next door app. In the neighborhood. Needless to say, I. Forwarded some of the information to Rex and he immediately contacted me and asked. If we could meet. So we had a wonderful, informative meeting at our home last night. Including some of the area neighbors and just by having more. Information and open dialog. Really helps a neighborhood to be more aware, accepting, being supportive when we're aware and we understand what. Actually is occurring or when it's happening, especially North Long Beach. Especially in times past years, years and years. This goes way back where we've been told that you were notified and and everybody was on board. And all of a sudden nobody knew what was going on or knew anything. And that's much prior to Richard to Rex Richardson. But what I would just ask is the neighbors are. Opposed to having a large. Complex. When I. Discuss things with some of our other. Neighbors, they are. Definitely in favor of micro what they called micro shelters all over the city. So just keep that in consideration. And if all of the council. Members would really step up like Rex has and addressed and and discussed with. People and encourage people that this is something that could be good. I think everyone should follow his lead. And I also just wanted to make record, if I could give all of the emails that the neighbors sent me so that I'm not just the voice piece, but everyone. Who had concerns could at least have their voice heard as well, that you couldn't. Attend. For sure, and just given over to the clerk and will get those. Thank you. Thank. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, mayor. City Council staff. My name is Brian D'Andrea with century housing in the Village. Is that Cabrillo? I'm also a proud member of the Everyone Home Task Force and a Continuum of Care Board member here in Long Beach. I want to applaud the city, our electeds, the community of North Long Beach for taking this bold step to move forward with this plan, to acquire the site and develop this this vibrant village to support our communities most vulnerable. Thousands of people in Long Beach experienced homelessness in any given year. This shelter and the surrounding services and potential for housing will immediately dress that that pressing need. It's also a wonderful opportunity to leverage state resources with the heat funding. There are many other resources that this site will attract that's going to bring economic development to our community, not to mention the hope and housing and healing that this will bring to our community. The city has been incredibly coordinated and strategic and how it deploys its homeless services. This site is another great example, an opportunity for the city to continue doing that and to continue strengthening its continuum. And so we're proud here to stand tonight to support the city in this endeavor. It's also very gratifying to see the Everyone Home Task Force recommendations being implemented. Hopefully, this is a catalyst for some of the other important recommendations that are in that report. So thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. I'm carelessly. My address is on file. I'm a member of several organizations The East Side Voice Carp and the Long Beach Reform Coalition. I'm delighted that you're taking on this project, and I'm. Encouraged that we're moving forward to do something for the homeless. Population. I, too, am concerned about the price the consider the city is considering paying for the properties chosen. While there is considerable detail and analysis in determining the purchase price of this or any property, the big picture of this particular deal does give cause for concern. This property was sold in December 2013 for $2 million. The improvements to it seem to have been to put in a small liquor store. It's hard to believe that a piece of property in the ninth District bordering on Compton, appreciated more than 250% in five years. Causing the city to have to use the. Entire 9.3 million from the. State. Just to buy the land and the buildings. The money coming from the state should be adequate to cover at least some of the costs. Of acquiring not just the land, but accomplishing the improvements to. Provide for that 125 shelter bed. Surely we can. Do better than this. This money came from the taxpayers and it is intended to help the homeless, not line someone's pockets in a real estate deal. Please consider taking one more step and engage the city auditor to validate that appraisal. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Members of the council. My name is Rene Castro. I live in the third district. I'm really, really happy tonight about what's happening here. This is a this is a bold step, as my president, Brian de Andrade, has stated. I want to just give a little bit of background. I'm the former chair for Mental Health America. I actually facilitated the city's ten year plan to end homelessness 12 years ago. And I also work at century villages at Cabrillo. And of course, we serve 1600 formerly homeless people in any given night. To those who would, you know, raise the costs, I'm not an assessor. I'm not a real estate agent. But I would ask, how much does it cost to continue to house homeless people in emergency rooms? What's the cost there? How long is it cost to continue to have L.A. County jails serve as the largest de facto mental institution in the United States? Those are the human costs. Of course, there's an economic cost here. We've seen the site where there at the press conference, there's an opportunity here to activate this community not only socially but economically. And I believe in the hands of Rex Richardson. We can get this done. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor and the council members. My name is Frank Romero Crockett, and I'm the public affairs officer of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. And I play a key role in the Everyone in campaign, a campaign committed to ending homelessness across L.A. County by activating local residents to support smart, collaborative and data driven solutions that are focused on building supportive housing that serves our most vulnerable in our communities and as a representative everyone in campaign. We want to show our strong support of the recommendation to purchase the properties on Atlantic Avenue to build a year round permanent emergency shelter for our homeless neighbors. We are also here tonight to show that we are bringing to everyone in campaigns together. We at the United Way launched the Everyone in Campaign back in March 2018 with the goal of educating, engaging and activating tens of thousands of people across L.A. County to be a part of ending homelessness by speaking out for housing. We know that we have the right strategies and enough resources that we can end homelessness. That's critical. But we also know that's not all what it takes. It takes leadership, which we are seeing here tonight with Councilmember Richardson. It takes courage and it takes regular people standing up and saying yes to the solutions that we know work. And they're also saying better not sidewalks. But we see here today powerful message that we will continue to lift up across this beautiful city. That's why it takes so much and makes so much sense for everyone in that's focused on ending homelessness to partner with the everyone that's focused on economic inclusion and creating a seat at the table for everyone. These are two sides of the same coin. We look forward to working together over the coming months and years to build a stronger Long Beach and a stronger L.A. County, where people have access to supportive and affordable housing that is critical to economic stability and success. Thank you. Thank you, Nick Speaker, please. Good evening. Honorable mayor and city council members. My name is Sister Celeste Trahan. I am from St Mary's Medical Center. I am vice president of mission integration there. And Carolyn Caldwell, our CEO and. President is a member of your Everyone Home. Task Force. I just want to say a few words about the services we provide at St Mary and as one of the major providers of hospital services in the Long Beach area for over 95 years, we continue to provide services regardless of people's ability to pay, regardless of where they come from. And increasingly in the last few years, of course, we have seen. An increase in those poor and vulnerable who are unfortunate enough to be homeless. As a participant in a regular. Community health needs assessment for the Greater Long Beach area, St Mary is among many organizations within the community which determines. Which looks at social determinants of health, one of which is housing and shelter. And we continually face the the challenge of providing comprehensive services to all the people we serve. In Long Beach. But in partnership with other health care entities and community organizations, we will continue to address these issues and provide care. For the poor and the vulnerable. Having a year round shelter is certainly a positive. Step in addressing one of the. Basic needs of life, and it helps us. To determine how. We will safely discharge homeless people. So thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Carlo Sylvia, Long Beach Reform Coalition and the people of Long Beach. I applaud the city's efforts to provide the much needed year round shelter for homeless residents. I'm a professional who has devoted the majority of my career in architecture to the creation of affordable housing, including homeless shelters, and who has advocated for housing as a right and not a privilege. Councilwoman Richardson mentioned a state of the art facility, and in in the documents for this meeting, it says property will immediately provide space for a needed year round shelter. He said there are 3 million to rehabilitate the building. That is an impossible feat to accomplish. The existing buildings are unsafe to inhabit. Do not provide even the most basic necessities. They're structurally unsound, lack adequate heating, ventilating, air conditioning and the other life safety measures. The these buildings are basically tear down in terms of the cost of that is being paid. The nine and a half million dollars that the city ought to have been paying land value, not not the the square footage of these buildings. So this these buildings will not as as has been stated, will immediately provide space needed. That is going to cost somewhere in a conservative value of about $100,000 per bed. Not to mention the operating costs, which I'm not an operator, but perhaps the other people here I can can talk about that. That's that's going to be another 2 to $3 million a year for operating costs. So in terms of costs, what we really need to talk about is there is no value in in I mean, there's a lot of value in housing the homeless, but there's more value if we spend that money appropriately. And I don't think that's being done on this project. Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Reed, a sophomore at Poly High School. From a youth staff perspective, I think that we're taking a step in the right direction. Building the homeless shelter in Long Beach. But in the Long Beach, homeless shelter will greatly help Long Beach because there's over a thousand homeless people currently living here. The homeless shelter also provide beds and generous separated quarters. I personally dislike it when it rains because outside they're homeless people without the proper clothing and roof to go under. So I think the homeless shelter is a step in solving the Long Beach homeless problem that we have. The shelter provided homeless people a nice place to go to feed them food and clean water. And not only that, but can help them get back on their feet so they can live a normal life again. Both in the homeless shelter and not. Only help the homeless, but the citizens of Long Beach, because there will be less homeless people on the streets and the homeless shelter provide more jobs and increase productivity in cities. This has a more of a positive than a negative outcome, and I think this is a great idea. Thank you. Council and especially Councilmember Richardson for shedding light on this topic. Please support this cause. Thank you. Next week. Before I begin, I just want to say thank you, City Councilman Richardson, for bringing light on. Bringing you. Please state your name. Oh, um, my name is Joanna, and I'm a junior at Milliken High School. I think this homeless shelter is a great idea and a step in the right direction. Currently, there are over a thousand homeless people in Long Beach that don't have the resources they need. Building the shelter will give them a step towards getting back on track by providing jobs and making sure they're healthy, especially with the bad weather we've been having recently. They don't have the risk. The protection from the rain that is needed and are more likely to get sick with this shelter. Their have access to resources. They need to be healthy. Also, a lot of the people, a lot of the time people are intimidated by homeless people and with the help of the shelter, that will break that stigma. It's a big, important step with this homeless shelter, and I think it should be voted yes. So please consider voting yes. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, counsel. My name is Jonathan Great. I am a lifelong resident of Long Beach and I must say I have drunk the water before I think I turned out okay, so I will get that off my chest. I also work I'm a part of a senior leadership team at a nonprofit here at Long Beach. We are definitely facing a homeless crisis here in Long Beach. At last year's homeless count, there was about 2000 homeless people living in the streets of Long Beach. I work with families who are one financial catastrophe away from homelessness. Homelessness affects everyone across all ages. One in six students that go to Long Beach City College are experiencing homelessness and one in ten students at Cal State Long Beach. Providing beds for them and providing them a place to go when they're trying to better themselves is definitely an equity issue that the city needs to take up. We need to have everybody in on this initiative and we need to have everybody in. In support of the homeless shelter. A lot of people are throwing around numbers and the cost of purchasing the buildings and the facilities. It's a lot better than renting or trying to lease these facilities. Those prices can change. We will own the facilities and it will be an investment that will last decades. Additionally, the state providing $8 million to address our homeless situation is definitely commendable by the former governor, Jerry Brown. In addition to beds, the homeless shelter will also provide job training, life skills, education and medical facilities for the homeless the homeless individuals. I commend Councilmember Richardson for bringing this to the Council and County Supervisor Janice Hahn for bringing over $3 million to help the renovation of the facilities. I thank you for your time and I urge you to vote yes and to continue investing in the city that we all love. Thank you. Thank you. Next week. Hello. Good evening. My name is Marisela Rivera. I am a resident of the ninth district. I want to first thank the the mayor and, of course, Councilmember Rex Richardson for his leadership. On this issue. I think it's incredibly easy to say we need to fix the problem. I think it's incredibly hard to say I'm going to be part of the solution. And I think. That I have seen I've. Lived in Long Beach for 19 years now, and I've seen the Army. Reserve. Facility almost become a homeless shelter. And residents in that district in that area said, not in my backyard. I have seen very recently residents in another part of Long Beach formed their own militia and say, not in my backyard. And that wasn't about permanent housing, that wasn't about solutions. That was simply about not wanting people to exist in their neighborhood. I have seen my neighbors in District nine say. Yes. In my backyard. Because we are going to. Help people. I encourage all of the residents in Long Beach to talk to homeless people. They are people. My elderly mother lives with us. We are five people now in a two bedroom house. We bought it a month before she was about to be homeless and when she needed a place to stay, we made it work because that's what we do. She would be one of those people if we didn't have her in our home with our two young children living in the ninth District in walking distance from this future all year shelter. I'm incredibly proud of. Rex Richardson and the city of Long Beach for taking this measure. Thank you so much. Thank you, Steven Council. My name is Jordan Win. I'm the Long Beach organizer of the Everyone in Coalition, part of United Way of Greater Los Angeles. We're here today to proudly support and urge you to vote yes, to acquire these properties, to develop this permanent emergency shelter. Having this new permanent shelter will aid in alleviating some of the most acute problems faced by our homeless neighbors in Long Beach. And it's a call to continue the work until all people in our city have a roof over their heads that they can call home. Rick said it best. This is the start. This is just the beginning. And he's shown immense leadership in this project. And we were honored to partner with him for this announcement last Monday and now to be here again to show our support. You've done a wonderful job engaging the community. You understand the importance of a healthy housing market and the need for affordable and supportive housing throughout our community. And so we hope to continue. You have a fruitful work with your office as well as the rest of Long Beach. We've met with most of your offices and had some wonderful discussions around moving this issue forward. We're committed at everyone in to building deep partnerships here in the months and years ahead. We've seen the strength of Long Beach is community. Many people came out today to show their support and we want to continue to show that we need these kinds of developments in Long Beach. We want to bring everybody in to show that we need to see more of these developments. We need to see more supportive housing, more affordable housing, more shelters around the city. And we want neighbors in Long Beach who are the majority to raise their voices and say, yes, yes, in my backyard, yes, this is what we need. So thank you so much. We once again urge you to vote yes. And I'd like to take these seconds to ask everybody who has signs, who's out here to support in the audience, to please stand, show your support, and thank you for coming out here tonight. Thanks so much. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello. My name is Julie Jones. I've lived in North Long Beach since 1986. And this situation is your typical hope for the best, but expect the worst. That said, you, as our elected representatives and we as a community need to develop a comprehensive plan of action regarding this campus compound in North Long Beach. This discussion and plan needs to begin now and continue monthly throughout the design, construction and implementation of this facility. Some considerations to discuss are the following. Each council district should have homeless facilities, not just North Long Beach. What about mental health problems? What type of facilities will be located on site? Will these issues be addressed? What about off site? And if so, where? Where do the people go if they're removed from the campus for disciplinary reasons? What about 24 hour security? What will their boundaries be? Only on site or off site also. Will more Long Beach police officers be required? And if so, are they coming from are already stretched to the limits delegated officers? How long will the grant money last? Are we going to have more taxes placed on us to continue to maintain the daily operating expenses of this facility? Is the money we have from outside sources enough to sustain ongoing business and not just construction? Let's utilize our high schools and colleges to provide onsite training for their students working as interns. What about having neighborhood cleanups and other community outreach activities using the campus residents? To do this with the community. What about the bathroom facilities? Are there going to be offsite porta potties? Representatives of the North Long Beach Neighborhood Associations should have ongoing meetings. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening. I'm Pastor Omar Mohammed. I serve the residents of Skid Row, Los Angeles. I stand today to speak on behalf of the people experiencing homelessness. I haven't been homeless for a year and a half with my family until July of 2018. I understand the plight. I commend Councilman Rex Richardson for taking up the cause of positive action toward ending homelessness homelessness in Long Beach. From my perspective, the councilman is taking a high risk close to political suicide, especially in the era of not in my backyard ism. Believe me, I understand nobody wants to be home once a homeless shelter in their backyard. But what I know is that if no one allows a shelter in their backyard, if not to, in the not too distant future, you will have homelessness in your front yard. I have worked for the homeless community off and on for over a decade. One thing I know is that homelessness is spreading. It is not decreasing and it is growing in the areas of women and children. I am aware of the magnitude of homeless of the homeless crisis in our nation, state, country, and especially the epicenter, Los Angeles. As you are, as you ask, why am I in Long Beach? Because homelessness is the same everywhere. When I heard about your efforts to change this, I said I want to be a part of it. So I step in. It is always a great step in the right direction. I know one thing that it may not be a lot of housing, but if you just if you think about that illustration of the beach, we had all the starfish on it. That guy picked up one starfish and threw it in the ocean. He said, What difference does that make? It didn't make it a whole lot of difference to those people in that beach, but it made a difference to that one person that got out. Keep up the good work, man. God is with you. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Good evening, Congressman. And everybody. Excuse me. City leaders and everybody in attendance. My name is Maureen Morris, and I provide bags for the homeless. I just about every. Day I go out and. I talk with the homeless and I hand them bags and see what their needs are. You know, we've done a lot of talking here tonight about what the homeless need. And my question is, are we going out there? Are we getting. In the areas where they are and. Asking them, what are your needs? What would you like to see this year to have? So moving forward, as I'm out there and I'm. Speaking to them and I'm handing out the items that I hand out, I'm going to be asking them, What would you like to see this shelter have? I know you know when you need beds, you need other items and things of that nature. But what would you like to see them have? That should be the question. What would you. Like us to provide? And then we all know, you know, what their needs are. So as I move forward and I'm doing what I'm doing and I'm talking to them, I'm going to be finding out what they think, you know, they would like to see the shelter have. And I will be contacting you guys to, you know, let you know what they would like to see. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. And I just want to make sure that I'm going to close the speaker's list with everyone that's speaking in line. If there's anybody additionally, I want to make sure I capture them as well. Okay. So we're going to and we're actually after this, gentlemen. We're going go down to the 90 seconds. Go ahead, sir. My name is is Pastor Bo Stevens. I'm one of the pastors at Chapel of Change and the City of Long Beach. And I'm an. Advocate of the Lord Jesus Christ. So. And I care about. What he cares about. And so and so when Rex Richmond, Richardson Toler told me about this, I was really pleased. To come along and support him because Jesus cares for the. Poor. And there's a question, yes. What is Jesus going to judge you on on the day of judgment? And and I got to thinking about that. He said one of the passages in the Bible says, When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was naked, you clothed me when I was sick. You visited me when I was in prison. You came to see me. And so. I. I care. About what the Lord cares. About. And we are. We are actively. Involved. Ministering to the homeless or homeless for an early church. And I just want to share that. Yesterday, a homeless man bought me lunch. And that's a miracle. A homeless man by his name was Joe. I live in the city of Paramount, but I pastor in the city of Long Beach. But I walk to this taco. Stand and and this guy, Joe, says, I said, man, I got to buy this guy a taco. Here's Joe again. And Joe says, No, I want to buy you a taco. So a lot of. Times we view homeless people. They're people. There's somebody and. There's somebody's uncle. A lady behind. Me was Cher, and that's her mom. She's homeless. And there there's somebody, a man. And so God cares about people. And I just want to say hi to Al Austin here, to a man here. He represents our district. Ken Bixby knows, too. We have a campus there. Anyways, God bless, guys. Great work. I'm for the proposal. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please, on this. Hi. My name is Jacqueline Case. I live in District eight and I also own a home and I am a realtor and I believe in affordable housing. I believe in homes for everyone. I support the everyone in in everyone home. And I want to commend our youth for coming out here and speaking about this subject, because it's it's wonderful to hear all different ages, all different ethnicities, all different backgrounds, everything. Also, Maricela, Debbie Rivera. Sorry if I butchered your name. What about me? What about in my backyard? So I'm very pleased and I will support Rex to the end. Disagree for this, but why not in every district? And so I will challenge every district to be Inbee because like everyone has made a comment here, this is humanity. I do have family that deals with homelessness, so it is near and dear to my heart. And then I also am a realtor. So, you know, go figure. That's a comment. Sometimes that can be a conflict, right? People talk about, you know, housing and so forth, but I'm for all of that. So I think having conversations like this, I've met amazing people in line, being able to be here to support Rex and support this initiative. I look forward to it and thank you for doing the extensive work, everybody who was part of that. I really appreciate it and thank you. And please support this. Unique speaker, please. Good evening, everyone. Thank you. My name is Keena Tompkins and I'm with the United States Veterans Initiative that's located in villages of Korea. Be really brief. We offer supportive services for homeless veterans. We service about 800 veterans daily. But what I'm tasked to today is to inform you that for the past two years, US Vets has operated the winter shelter at 5571 Orange Avenue. And I just want to share some success stories. For sure, we need all the resources and supplies that they need. But to know that you have help, maybe one or the 150 that we serve is nightly. With food, with clothing, with hygiene. We have place since we started the shelter on December 8th. We have place 14 people. And these are the most vulnerable people we have here, homeless people. We have we place 14 of them already in housing and with jobs. So this is not a need. It's not a it's not a want. It's a need. And you as veterans, as operation manager, we are here to support. And we would love to be part of that transition team with operations because we've done it for two years and I think we've been successful with it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Miha. I live in that neighborhood and I see the necessity of the homeless shelter. So I appreciate that. And but I'm not happy that I just learned about this a couple of days ago, but it seems like it's already it's going to move forward. So I probably have to make a commitment to support, but I need your commitment to make sure this neighborhood will not be deteriorated any more than as it is right now as far as cleanliness and crime. I am single woman living there. I'm very afraid. Just want to know when you're. Me home and thinking we will work. What are those are issues and other important to the councilman and to the city and so and I would encourage also maybe if maybe someone from the councilman's office or my office to connect and we want to make sure where you get the information and feel safe in your community. So thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor. Council members and everyone. Actually had no intention on speaking, so I'll make this really. Quick. As a former homeless person, I've gone from homelessness to feeling like 150 people a day from my own home. When I lived in Miami, I just moved here from Miami. And Miami is a no tax day, so I didn't have to pay taxes in Miami. And other people were like complaining about what you guys are going to pay for this building and others though I would gladly give my taxes to pay for. That because you cannot. Put a price on hunger. Homelessness and peace. Of mind. Council. My name is Lauren Boland. A few weeks. Ago, I participated. In. The homeless count. It was life. Changing. I thought my work with Habitat for Humanity was life changing in 2008. No. I ask. You to remember that this money. Is $8 million that we've been granted by the state. It's for human beings. It's not to be a really great, cool real estate development. It's not to be a showstopper. It is for people. These people are. They're not all mentally ill. They're not all drug addicts. What I experienced out there in in in that count, I had no idea. I worry that they're not all going to use that shelter in that location. I worry that we're not going to have enough money to. Build the ones that we need in other parts of the city. As a mortgage. Professional, I worry that the value of the property has been inflated by a marijuana gold rush. That is over and I ask the city to get another appraisal. What is it? Five, $7,000 to get another one done. Spend the money. Do the due diligence. The homeless people out there need every dollar spent appropriately. Thank you. Next speaker. Thank you. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor and city council members. My name is Juanita Doppler moore. I'm a resident of the ninth District and I'm also the president of the Collins Neighborhood Association and the Veterans Affairs Commission representing the ninth District. This is a great. Opportunity to address a citywide issue of homelessness and. Lack of affordable housing there, with there being over a thousand 1800 homeless individuals in our city. It is time to step up and address this issue. I'm in great support of the of the campus. That is part of the discussion tonight to provide our residents with affordable housing, wraparound services and job opportunities and rehabilitation. This space. Goes. Beyond just. Housing, the housing, the homeless individuals. It provides them the opportunity to reintegrate and become members of society. I am. I am. I applaud the city councilman, Rex Richardson, and all the members here tonight. And I ask that you support this initiative. Thank you very much. Thank you, Nick. Speaker, please. Hello. My name is Ron at Mars. I'm with the Hamilton Neighborhood Association. I used to be afraid of the homeless, but then I realized that it was my own fear of them and being homeless and that they're just human beings trying their best to survive. I realized it is not my right to say they have no rights, no rights to services if it's in my neighborhood or if it will affect me or if I will see them. It is not my right to say who deserves help and who doesn't, or to judge why they are in that position. Likely we are a few months away from being homeless ourselves if things go wrong in our lives. Then I thought back on my life when I was a teen. I lived on the streets for about three years. I'm so far removed from that time that. I'd forgotten what I had gone through to survive on the streets. I know this is. A growing issue. I know we are not the only area in the city that is picked on by hosting homeless services. I know that this is an issue that can affect each and every one of us at any time, at any capacity. I know that we need to step up and be a part of the solution. I know that these less fortunate need our help. I know we need to look at this and quit trying to ignore it. I wish there were. No homeless and we were not having this conversation. But there is. And we are. So we must now work to solve it. Drawing a line in the sand does not solve anything during this process. I would also challenge other districts to be as open minded as the ninth District and Rex Richardson in supporting homeless services. Please consider approving the sale. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Jerry Fink. I'm with the Hamilton Neighborhood Association. I'm glad to see our representatives in this perpetually Rex Richardsons of forward thinking on this. And a lot of things are happening in our district, and I'm glad that the homeless are not going to be left out. I encourage the neighbors that are against it and for it to sit down at the table and we can see what works for everybody because it's it's all of our neighborhoods and and we need to help those that are less fortunate than ourselves. Thank you. Thank you. I'm also going to close the speakers list. I had we had closed it, but another person jumped. So we're going to the gentleman in the carpet. I will be the last one. Okay. Yes, please. Good evening. My name is Linda Campbell, and I'm a 38 year resident of the Hamilton Neighborhood Association. I'm in strong support of this initiative. I look forward to being part of the solution for the homeless. That particular site has been a problem. The entire time I have lived in the Hamilton Neighborhood Association. This is an opportunity for us as a community to step up and be part of the solution and not just sit back and say, not in my backyard. The gentleman who spoke who said, if it's not in your backyard, it may very well end up in your front yard. Very apropos. If we sit back and do nothing. We will not. Solve the problem. It will just increase. Please step up and do the right thing and support this initiative. And make sure that we are part of a solution. And I challenge each councilman. To organize your own communities, your own council districts to be part of a solution that's going to continue if we don't all step up and be part of the solution. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Karen replied, I'm a resident of District one and I am so proud of my city tonight for bringing this forward. And for Rex, for all the work and all the people that have put in effort on this project. As someone who was homeless for three months, I don't want anyone to ever have to sleep on the floor of a locked bathroom, public bathroom, or to wash their hair in a sink because they don't have a place to go. I've been here working in a home in housing for over 13 years, and this is just kind of the high point of my life up to this point. This is just so meaningful to so many people in our community who are not them or those people. They are us. You can never tell who is homeless, who's sleeping in their car, who is couch surfing, could be the person next to you. Could be your neighbor. So don't judge people. Help them. They're all part of our community. And thank you so much for all your hard work. And that price. Is not too high. How much is it worth to save people in our community? Thank you. Next speaker, please. Yes, I am one of you from the eighth district. I would like to ask a couple of questions. One is, if this project or purchasing decision is going to receive money from the state and the county. Is this project going to be a regional project or a city only project? Also, why are relocating this process, this project as far north as possible from where the actual people congregate? Why would someone in downtown go all the way to North Long Beach, given that they have carts, personal belongings, etc.? And why would there. If I want there be public outreach. Why hasn't there been enough public outreach? Or dialog in choosing this location. Why is it we are always presented with a fait accompli instead of a choice? Please postpone. Postpone this decision. In order to open it up to the public for dialog, in order to show us what steps were taken to come to these conclusions. Like a previous speaker said, it's eight or nine and a half million dollars are going to be spent on a piece of land. Not on the people that really need it. Thank you. Your next speaker, please. Good evening, councilmembers. Mayor Garcia. It's good to be with you tonight. My name is Megan Curr. I'm a resident of the eighth District. I also have the honor of representing North Palm Beach on the Board of Education for Long Beach Unified School District. And I can't I think the words that have been said previously by the people who live in the adjacent properties about the positive impact that this will have on their lives and on their property values. I can't restate that. But what I can say as someone who's been involved in the homeless issue for 17 years and someone who's lived in this community my whole life, I've never been more proud of the North Long Beach community for stepping up and saying, yes, yes, here, yes, us will be part of the solution. I want to thank the council members who stayed in the chambers for this entire discussion to hear us and to hear us implore everyone else in the city to do the same thing, which is step up. We belong to each other in this city and we like to talk about how we're a big city but a small town. But the residents of North Long Beach have shown and led the way with their example tonight and their positivity and their embracing of the complex realities of homelessness and their willingness to be part of the solution. So as a lifelong resident, I am very proud. As a school board member, I am very proud. And I urge you to support this measure tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Dr. Gerald Higginbotham. I am the CEO and founder of the Captain's Millionaire, Inc. I'm a new residents here, 90 day residents to the Long Beach area. I'm just returning home after 30 years. And so I've come home to help to heal our communities. And I just didn't want to sit in the stand. I'm in wrecks. I'm standing with you. I've helped to develop a bottom up model that will address many of the issues that we have in our communities. I did it in Saint Louis, and so now I'm coming home to Long Beach so we can begin to make an impact. I'm in. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Monica Keller. I'm a resident of the ninth District and representing the Start King Neighborhood Association. And I just want to thank Councilmember Rex Richardson for stepping up to take on this challenge. And all the neighbors and the residents there are concerned and they address them. And I thank you guys for taking the time tonight to bring up some of those issues and kind of, you know, let us know what's going on and what has gone on in the past and how we can move forward. And just is, again, we're all in and we just thank you and we're here, you know, thank you again for helping us. I work in social services, so I know direct every day the impact that homelessness has on our participants as well as my coworkers. I work with people who every day are facing homelessness or just a check away from being homeless. So I think this is a very important issue and I just thankful that we are in a part of the city that is taking it on. And I hope that other parts of the city and other districts also address this in their own areas. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Charlie. I'm a I'm an aunt and I. I used to live in Torrance. I moved to Paramount. I buy a new brand new house and I just got something on my front door. Uh, yesterday I got two, and then I got one again when I came back from work saying in the city to purchase any liquor and warehoused for $9.5 million. I didn't I didn't know this until yesterday. I was hoping that if you wanted to engage on people around the community of Paramount, it was I get this every like every month a flier saying what the good things with new events were doing. What are we? You know, pretty much everything. And I told the news events and I feel proud because it's like from Torrance to coming to Paramount. I couldn't really afford a house in Torrance because I had to live within my means. And this newly fresh built house maybe, you know, achieve that goal, have that dream. And now I talk to my mom and and she said, Well, now you got to think about your house can be devalued. I know that gentleman like was talking about appraisal and what they're trying to do and yes I help people are you know I know I can't you know go on details but when I have patients in the E.R., you know coming up my floor they're they're not always the best and they're always not good. I always get the good and the bad. And so I just feel like. Thank you very much. All right, cool. Thank you very much, sir. That concludes public comment. I know that Councilor Richardson had a few more and. We ended with him and he wanted to make a closing comment. And then we're going over to Councilmember Pearce and then the speakers. Two speakers. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I just wanted to just, uh, acknowledge you all and address some of some of the things quickly that were brought up. So, number one, we're all in this together. All of our city council colleagues have made contributions to this conversation. The mayor, the entire all of our colleagues care about this issue. It's true. Other districts have hosted the winter shelter in the past, district eight districts, one that I know of. There's been efforts across the city. So people are committed to this issue. And for this to work, we need everyone's support. And so, you know, I want to thank all of our colleagues on the city council for their commitment to this issue and for their hard work. A few things came up. Just some basic stuff that I heard I want to just debunk so quickly this conversation. I keep hearing $2 million sales price and 300% increase. So. Mr.. Mr.. Keisler, can you quickly just describe the arms length sale and what that $2 million was? Councilmember Certainly so. So through through the process of conducting an appraisal, there's a title record review. There's also interviews with past property owners to understand the way the valuation was was set at the previous purchase price. In this case, there's something in California. It's called an arm's length transaction, which means that the two parties don't know each other there. It's usually a market based process if it's considered arm's length. In this case, in the 2013 transaction, the the transaction between two parties, in this case, the Rescue Mission Foundation and the current owner was not considered arm's length. In fact, there were extenuating circumstances that were not disclosed, but indicated that this was not a market based transaction. It could be in some cases that that one of the parties is under duress or they work out a deal less formally. And so the price that was recorded with the assessor was based on a process that was not considered arm's length and was not considered market based, which is why it explains in some ways why it was so below market at that time. The price probably was was higher than what the the previous owner had paid, which was over $3 million for the property. So we don't have all those details. But that that was part of our appraisal process. Thank you. Do you know who the owner was before it was sold. Prior to the the owner the current owner, it was the Rescue Mission Foundation. That was who was indicated as the previous owner. Great. I know there was a comment about Jim Lewis who was associated with the rescue mission about the market there. The rescue mission are the folks who sold it below market value. So everything you hear, there's always more context to it. Next thing that there was a comment about, the 3.4 million from the county that we're grateful for is not enough to make you know, to build this vision. It's absolutely true. That's why the plan is to go out and identify public private partners, other agencies, so that we can build this aspirational vision that we're talking about. So we're not by any means claiming that the 3.4 million will be the it for this for this project. That money is is dedicated to retrofitting the existing building. But we're talking about is as much more for the site. There was the last thing is folks say, why North Palm Beach, not other areas, as if there aren't homeless issues in North Long Beach. The reality is we are at the only part of the city is at the nexus of the L.A. River, the 1791 and and the Edison right away. All of those have different jurisdictional issues in terms of who responds from a public safety standpoint. County sheriffs, some private, some LAPD, all of them. We always have the issue where you clean up an encampment, you clean up an encampment, you help reach new outreach on one side. And then folks simply jump the fence inside of the camp and, you know, on the Edison right away. And then you go address that. They put it back on the other side of the fence, in the river, in the flood zone. And so we have to be comprehensive. And there are issues, significant homeless issues in north on beach that this will help to address that those homeless issues in Norfolk. And so we don't want to assume that there's only homelessness in the downtown. There's not there are major anchors along the river where homelessness exists. Again, this has been you know, this is a team effort. The entire council has done great things on homelessness and, you know, and the community has stepped up. So there's nine letters of support here. So I just want to acknowledge Assembly Member Mike Gibson. Speaker Anthony Rendon. Central Asia. Andy Kerr. Committee Girls and Action Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Long Beach Community Action Partnership, YMCA, Community Development and Pools for Hope for submitting these letters to the City Council. Thank you. And that's my piece. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Pierce. So I want to say thank you to every resident that showed up today. Every person that shared their story. Every person that's been a part of this discussion not only in the last two weeks, but for the last several years. And, of course, I think the council member in North Long Beach that has had the opportunity to lead on this, to really work with community members, to make sure that this is not a place where you're going to have cuts, but this is a place that's going to be really serving of the residents that are there, of the homeless population that is going to transition through that space. I think creating, you know, a campus that has opportunities similar to the villages of Korea is going to be exciting to have that partnership is really critical. I know that often we respond out of a place of fear. You know, not in my backyard or how much money are we going to spend? And that knee jerk response. And we know when we lead out of a place of fear, we hold ourselves back and we isolate ourselves. And so, too, have residents in North Long Beach say, we want to partner. We want to work together. We want to put that aside. And yet we have some questions. You know, we have we'd like more lighting. Sure. I think that that really demonstrates how far the city has come. Ten years ago, if you would have had this discussion here in this chamber, it would have gone very differently. When we look at how much money we've spent on homeless services over the last three years, I think I just got some numbers since I've been in office. It's around $26 million out of our health department. That doesn't include the cost in our urgent care. That doesn't include the cost of our fire and PD going out for calls of service for people that are on the front lines. In my district is downtown. It's our waterfront as a district that has high property values. It's a district that is very much impacted by homelessness. And I think it's very fascinating to see sometimes that just this side of the block can say we will spend whatever it takes to house somebody, and then you have fear and worry on the other side. And so to everybody's point around, why not other places? I think that Councilmember Rex Richardson made a really great point. We have to watch and make sure that, one, that their property values are maintained. They have spent a great deal over the last three terms of this council district and in the north Long Beach to change the story about what north long beaches. And so I know that's extremely important to the councilmember, making sure that when you see homelessness, that you're not seeing tents, but you're seeing people getting services and coming out and moving on past that that point. So those are things that I think, yeah, we need to watch and see. But in my office, when I first got in, I think, you know, we all come in bright eyed and bushy tailed and we try to lead on on items. And I know I've worked with folks that have done homeless services for a long time, and we came in and tried to put a couple of different places with the shipping containers. And I remember working with development services and they're like, No, we're not going to do X, Y and Z, we're not going to retrofit them. It's going to be people living in boxes. And we worked with the Gay and Lesbian Center, the LGBTQ center on Fourth Street, which is in my neighborhood. And they said, absolutely, we'll put them on our property, we'll put them on our back lot if we have to. We'll put them on stilts above our property. We ran into some challenges. We ran into some great opportunity with some funding, but it was a very heavy lift to carry something like this and to not just say, we found a place, we found the money and we found the community that's willing. And unfortunately, in my first six months in office, we weren't able to pull that off. There's still interest. HGTV Rex, I'm going to connect you. These guys, they want to retrofit and put money into anything to help with this homeless community. So there are some once we start on a project like this, we are going to get some more resources. But I totally accept the challenge of some services in the second district. We obviously have a very different geographic space and I think we've tried to work even to find empty lots that are going to be waiting for development to say, well, can we do something temporary? But it takes a lot of coordination. And so bureaucracy sometimes feels like it doesn't have a heartbeat. But I want to say how proud I am of our staff, our city staff for the last several years is really seems like we have found our heartbeat and we're we're attempting to march along that to get solutions. And so I know it takes a lot of different components. I challenge community groups, developers, those that are doing homeless services to also think creatively about what? Are opportunities in my district where we can take that on because we absolutely need to have that Bigsby park. We is where we have people locking themselves in the bathroom so they can sleep. You know, Bixby Park is where I have children that see the affects of homelessness every single day, and it really does affect our neighborhoods. And so I want to be able to say shelter, right? Beds, not sidewalks. So we're all in fully support you. I can't wait to come out and take a tour of the facility and learn how maybe we have some auxiliary spaces like that in the second district. I know there's some work being done at the state level around funding for homeless services around transit corridors. We've got the 710, we've got blue line. We have some great spaces where we can bring some of those services. So I applaud again everybody and I'm very proud to be on this council tonight. Thank you. And one last thing I will say for the. I know for a fact from people in my district that I have three cannabis dispensaries in my district. And we've worked very closely with them to make sure they're engaging community members and having community meetings at their facilities. Cannabis store, they are going for $7 million, I think two weeks ago. One of the people that own a property in my district purchased on the West Side and they purchased a building for $7 million because it had a license tied to it. So it is hard to kind of get our heads around. And I trust that we are putting our best foot forward. And it doesn't matter that we kind of get starstruck, but we know that we're going to invest the time and the energy to pull this off the right way so that we can continue to provide services and shelter for the homeless folks that are in our community. So thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilwoman Price. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I want to echo the comments of my colleagues, and I do just want to touch upon one of the public comments that was made about council members not being in the chambers. It's unfortunate that I understand why the comment was made, but I think especially on a night like tonight where we're talking about collaboration and not divisiveness, it's important to not sit in judgment of others. So I just want to explain my. The same people who are here were here when I left. So I don't know who was in the chambers. So I assumed that comment was towards me. But I will share that. We had a recital at my son's school, Lowell Elementary School, tonight, so I did go to his recital and was back within an hour. I was the only parent he had there tonight, so I felt it was important for me to be there in five years. It's the first time I've ever walked away from a council meeting to do something for my family. And I have never walked out of council chambers for a vote ever. I frankly think that's cowardly and I never do it. And anyone who knows me knows that I don't take those issues lightly. I will also say that we shouldn't make judgments because what is the implication there that people didn't stay? I don't know if anyone else left maybe to go use the restroom. I have no idea. But what's the implication there? That they don't care? Because that's not true of any member of this council. Every single member of this council cares about this issue deeply. So I don't know if they took a break to use the restroom or maybe went to have a bite to eat, I don't know. But I would just say, please don't judge, because we all care deeply about this issue. And I know the staff report talks about the kind of the start of this process being in July. And that is that is the data in there is accurate in regards to when we have those discussions. But I want to thank our Health and Human Services Director Kelly Collopy, because I know that in 2014 was the first time I started talking to her about a homeless shelter and what could be done and what the city's plans are. And I know that for years we've been looking at the former winter shelter site as a possible location. In fact, we spoke with Supervisor Hahn shortly after she was elected to find out whether or not there could be funds that could be allocated from the county to help support that facility being turned into a permanent shelter. And I want to first start by just thanking her. I know that there was a representative from her office here earlier tonight, but I sit on the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority with her, and we have many homeless issues along the tracks. And Supervisor Hahn has really put her money where her mouth is when it comes to homelessness and was the first before we even got state moneys to put forth money towards the operation of a year round shelter, if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct? Before the state moneys came in. The funding is coming through Measure H. Matched through Measure H. So she's been just a huge, huge advocate for these issues for us on a county level. And I want to thank her for that. I also want to thank our mayor and our state legislative committee, because for their advocacy, we would not have had the state funds that we have to work with. And I think that's just been a huge game changer in this plan for us. And, of course, I want to thank Councilman Richardson. The outreach that he's done with his community. The engagement that he's participated in is just remarkable. And I'm grateful to have him as a colleague on this council for all the great work that he's done. It's not easy to propose a concept like this in your neighborhood. And even though there had been a winter shelter there, a temporary shelter there in the past, he really engaged the community in in seeing and understanding the need for this and the opportunities for them to be part of the solution. And I'm grateful for that. I also want to thank my council colleagues for us being at this point. I mean, this is something that we talked about even before it was in public session years ago and something that the city had really hoped for and all the council members were pushing for. And I am so grateful that we're at this point. I do a lot of work for those of you who know me on a personal level, some of you do and some of you don't with the homeless community, both in my work as a prosecutor, I'm very involved in our collaborative court process where I work very hard. Even today I did with actually with a Long Beach Police Department officer who was in the courthouse that I manage with a homeless individual, that he was trying to get into rehab. And I helped him from the D.A. side assist the individual so that he could clear his warrants and he could get into rehab today. And that was amazing. But above and beyond that, I do a lot of work. I volunteered at UCOS several times, and I can tell you the thing that I hear over and over again, obviously, housing is one of the major critical areas of need, but it's not the need for everyone. In fact, we have individuals who have families who are very supportive families who want to help them. But there are other issues preventing them from getting that support and getting involved in that supportive cycle that they need to get on to a different path. And so I think that having a shelter that has a low barrier to entry and addresses things, one of the things that I hear all the time when I go and volunteer at Uco on Sundays when I've done it and when I do homeless outreach is people don't want to go to shelters because if they're a couple, they're going to be separated. The men have to go in one area. Generally, I'm not saying all facilities, but that's what I hear a lot. When I'm working with the homeless community, they can't stay together as a family. Another one is pets. People not having pets, I think really, really impacts people because they don't want to be separated from their pets. It's really like your family and sometimes the only source of support you have. So that's our our shelter. Having a low entry is, I think, very, very important. I know that the next steps involve I mean, right now tonight's item is about the purchase of the property. But assuming all goes as we've planned and we hope, I hope that the next step will involve a very robust, citywide, inclusive process that allows all of us on the city council, regardless of what district we live in, to be involved in, what kind of services we offer. What the barriers. To entry are, how the transportation. Models might work for folks to get into those services. What types of opportunities supportive services are going to be going there? So my request to the city manager and to Director Collopy would be please include all of us because this is something that we all feel very, very strongly about and it's impacting all of our neighborhoods, every single one of us. You know, if you go to the third District, any community meeting in the third district, what they will tell you is it's impacting the third district harder than everyone else because of the coastal zones. I know that's not true, but every neighborhood feels that because that's their experience every day. And so we want to be part of that process so that we can bring all those different perspectives. I do think that it's very, very important for us to be supportive of the neighborhood, in the community that is accepting this citywide treasure , asset needed service in their neighborhood and whatever that we can do whatever Councilman Richardson needs from us to make sure that any impacts are mitigated. You have my 1,000% support that if the community wants or needs anything to ensure that their quality of life is not disrupted as a result of this, that you will always have my backing 100% for that because they deserve it. And we're all here to support you and your community in these efforts. But I just want to thank staff. You've done an amazing job getting us to this point. Mr. Keisler, you and your team continue to do great work in every district, regardless of what the project is. And it amazes me because most people have like a specialty, right? They have a niche that they operate in. You're everywhere on every project and on every topic and doing a fantastic job at it. So thank you. Thanks to the team who presented tonight. Thanks to everyone who came out tonight. Please, if you take one thing away from tonight, everybody on this council cares deeply about this issue. Will meet with you any time of day or night to talk and listen to your ideas and hear what you think we should have as a city. In regards to homelessness, it's affecting all of us, and there are many, many opportunities for us to improve the situation when we work together. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to thank everybody for coming out this evening and sharing your public comments and to the council and to those who watch this council and have paid attention for some time. I ask we're certainly beside when we are actually talking about a homeless issue and doing something about it. She has she has been a conscious public commenter for four years now, week after week after week, you know, imploring this council to do something, imploring our city staff to do something. And, you know, I just I want to appreciate her because. But she's not here. She she has been a true advocate. I do have some questions because I think there were some good questions here. And before I go into my comments, I do want to ask staff and you've done a long, arduous process, we understand. You know, I understand what the process has been because I've been engaged from from the very beginning. But for the public benefit, can you. And you may have done this already, but once again, walk us through why this property is the best property or the best opportunity for a year round shelter and what, if any, opportunities, other opportunities were considered getting to this point. Councilmember. That is a great question, and we really didn't cover it earlier. But over the past few years, we, as the Economic Development Department, have been responsible for assisting the Health and Human Services Department with locating sites for winter shelters. In in each year, we go through a process of engaging what are called commercial brokers, real estate brokers that help us to identify sites that meet the specifications of certain size, you know, access issues and those kinds of things. And in over the past couple of years, we've typically identified 35 to 50 sites through that process of engaging brokers to look at properties around Long Beach and believe it or not, generally were unable to find a landlord who will engage with us for either a particular period of time to lease the property. And so we've really had a challenge of finding the type of location that that can provide the space and access that we need in the council action that that occurred last year. And we had mentioned before in the presentation we'd been asked to look at those sites again and to identify including former winter shelter sites in in the the search to identify landlords that would be willing to lease or to sell for the for the purposes of a year round shelter. And and we did that search, of course, as we do each year. And this property, which we had been in discussions with the landlord, had actually not been available to us for two years because they had entered into a lease agreement with a cannabis association or a cannabis business and had an active lease in place, which is why the property was worth so much. But over the course of our discussions, we were able to to make progress in terms of not just the the appraisal, but also the discussions with the property owner for a cooperative sale. And so this really became a unique opportunity for us. And of course, when securing the heat funding from the state, the timing was was right and ultimately this became our primary target. But I will just recap. We generally will look at 35 to 50 sites a year and oftentimes not get a single landlord who'd be willing to lease for the period of time or the price point or sell their site for this purpose. So happy to happy to answer any more questions about that. Okay. So if there is a landlord or a property owner that has, what would be the specs we're looking for 2 to 2 house. Yeah. Typically for the, the, the emergency shelter, we were looking for spaces that could house I believe was about 150 beds in the past couple of years. It was that was the target. So they were larger areas, usually a warehouse that had the floor space to put that number of beds, those those winter shelters in the the operations of the winter shelters were unique as well because there weren't individual rooms, there weren't, you know, the apartment kind of style. It was more of an open for a setting. So typically, you know, the 25,000 square feet of a warehouse space allowed for the 150 beds and some property that typically the the individuals would bring with them. So I asked you to explain that because it's not easy to find commercial real real estate in this city with that kind of space. And so thank you for for for explaining that. So. Obviously actions speak louder than words. And tonight, I believe this council has a unique opportunity to act. And to borrow a phrase from my colleague, the Andrews, we have an opportunity to actually walk the walk and not just talk about it. Because we have a unique funding source coming from the state and and supported by our county through Measure H. We have the resources to do it. I want to thank Councilmember Richardson and the District nine residents for stepping up and taking the risk and being part of the solution. I don't think it's a big risk because and I'll explain why. I'd also like to state that from my experience living in Long Beach for the last 25 years, the people in this great, great city are neighborly. They're compassionate and empathetic. And that has been demonstrated tonight through public comment over and over and over again for those who have come out in support of this project. My district, the eighth district, the great eighth district is home to the largest housing development in the city. A whole lot of affordable housing, Section eight housing, and numerous nonprofits that provide social service programs, including the Women's Shelter of Long Beach, Telecare. And today we're we're the current home to the winter shelter. We've sponsored it for the last two years at the Old North Library. This is an issue, I believe, of humanity. And it's everybody's responsibility to to help in the crisis of our time. The winter shelter in the eighth District right now, I can say, is very well run by U.S. vets. There have been no incidents. There have been no significant impacts. To report it to my office by the neighbors. It has been a peaceful, quiet, seamless, smooth operation. And that's why I think and I know because they've had experience with it before. Obviously, this is not new to the ninth District that this project will work in terms of the cost. Yes, it seems like a lot. Right. But I will just say that we can't afford not to do this at this point. This this crisis is a serious crisis. The the the the people on the street need help. And it's our duty to humanity, I believe, as city council members, but also as a society. Everybody in here has as a responsibility to provide shelter where and if we can. And I'll say this one shelter is not enough in the city. This is a large city. 125 beds is a it's going to be a drop in the bucket by the time this this the shelter comes online. If you look at the current trend of homelessness throughout the L.A. County. And Lauren Bolen, thank you for participating in this belief. Thank you for participating in the the homeless count that you know, everybody else who did that a couple of weeks ago. That's going to be an important exercise and engage for us to to to to plan resources in the future. I personally would like to see at least three homeless shelters year round in the city of Long Beach. Based on the numbers that we have today that we know and what we are projecting in the future. I think it's, again, inhumane for our brothers and sisters, our aunts, uncles, fellow human beings to have to sleep on railroad, ride away in a long riverbeds, in parks, alleys, along sidewalks. This is this is not something that we can sit back and say, hey, not in my backyard, because, yes, it will be on your front yard . I heard that my neighbor about three months ago literally had somebody sleeping in their flower bed. Right. And everybody on the block was just astounded, like, what do we do? We have to do something. And so this tonight, this the city council has an opportunity to step up, to make a bold decision in the right direction. I'm certainly happy to lend my vote and my support for for this winter. I mean, not the winter shelter, just this year round shelter for the city of Long Beach. And and again, it's not going to be an easy process. I hope that we can do all we can to fast track this, get the resources to build it out and to make it habitable for for the people that that need the services. And so with that, you have my support. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Supermom. Thank you, Mayor Garcia. Thank you all for being here tonight and your civic engagement. Thanks to Rex Richardson for bringing the item forward. And thank you to all. My council colleagues. For supporting these issues on homelessness over the years and also like to commend Susie Price for getting us back on track here with her comments on making this collaborative and positive moving forward. For those who don't know, we started our meetings today at 3:30 p.m.. If one of us has to take a break, you might want to know that the sound. From the chamber. Is piped into the council lounge so we never miss a comment. Also, in the interests of just keeping it positive, one of the comments mentioned the neighbors rejecting a shelter near the armory, and I'm pretty sure that reference was to what we called Schroeder Hall. It was ten years ago, and I was in an office in the fifth District Council. Councilwoman Mongo was not in office then. But just as a point of clarification, that was not a year round shelter and it wasn't even a shelter. So I guess my point is we are all we all want to work collaboratively here and want to make it positive moving forward. So I think we can avoid pointing fingers at behaviors in the past because I think we're on the right track now. I also want to thank. Staff, Kelly Colby, of course, and then John Keisler. He's worked so hard on this. But what you may not know, he's also simultaneously been working on the community hospital project. And you talk about a project that could really impact this issue. Community hospital, before it closed, had a 28 bed psych unit. And if you know the correlation between homelessness and mental health issues, when we reopen community hospital, we might be able to double that capacity. So you think of 56 beds addressing those challenged with with mental health issues. What a great impact that would be. So thank you again and I'll be in support. Thank you. Councilmember Vice Mayor Andrew. Yes, thank you, Mayor. First of all, I'd like to thank Rex Richardson. And as host Dad and Susie and all the rest of the individuals on the day today, I don't think individuals would really take it lightly and know that we are in a crisis when we talk about homelessness. But I think everyone out there, whether you agree or you disagree, you are very compassionate about the individuals out there sleeping on the streets, sleeping next to your homes, in your alleys. You must have some form of compassion. If you don't, then I think it's something, you know, Lauren, with you and your thoughts and your compassion. But I think tonight we're trying to show you that we are working with a dedicated we're committed to this homeless all around shelter. And Councilman Richardson, I think he's went above and beyond. You know, he and his district do let you know that they are there. They are all in. And I really want to thank the young students, especially in the vigil from Polly and the young lady from Milliken. You know, we I'm a policeman, but that's okay. But with all of that said, I just want to let you individuals, knowing the young man here says he came all the way in and says, I'm in, and that's wonderful, because I think if we don't get in, then they will be in and that's on your porch, your backyard, your front yard. And what can we do? We must do it. And we must do it now. Let's get involved. Don't talk about it. We're going to have to be about it. Thank you, individuals, for waiting this long to be a part of this dialog. Thank you again. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And just to conclude, I want to just touch on one other thing that was said, which I think is so important and I think needs to be reiterated and I want to expand on on it. This idea of the ensuring that that this shelter is a place that that there are low barriers to entry is really, really important for for a couple of reasons, I think. One is this will be the first municipal municipal shelter in the city. And that gives us as as a governmental body, different level of responsibility and in addition, allows us to be much more flexible in what happens on the site. And we have some really great shelter operators, by the way, which I know we haven't talked a lot about tonight. But I do want to thank the current operators of the shelters that are in the city, which we've had partnerships for a long time. But there's key components that are important that this shelter will allow us to do. One, for example, which hasn't been mentioned much tonight, is the openness for the LGBTQ community. There are many members we know that most homeless youth are LGBTQ, and we also know that this shelter won't have and is not what have some requirements other shelters might have that might make young gay or lesbian or trans community members feel uncomfortable. And so that's really important for the gay community to have a shelter that is completely open. And the other, which I think was mentioned by Councilman Price, is the idea of pets and to be able to actually have and allow people to come in with their with their animals who are members of their family is really , really important as well, which we know is not always the case in all shelters. And the family issue being able to come in, if you have a partner that you're on the street with, that is really, really important. It's really, really important that that happens. And so I think that those those issues and this idea that this will be a shelter for everyone to me is very exciting. And again, thank you to the community and for all all of the work. And so with that, I'm not sure that Councilman Gonzales is still on the line or not. I don't think so. So maybe we can just go and take a vote using the the keypads. Oh, she absolutely cares. We need to we need to. Continue as a roll call vote. But we do need to get the roll call vote. And let's let's continue as a roll call vote. Madam Clerk. Councilmember Gonzalez. Councilmember Pierce. Councilwoman Price. Councilmember Supernanny. Hi. Vice Mayor Dee Andrews. All right. Councilman Austin. Councilmember Richardson. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Okay. I know it's. I know it's late, but now we're gonna go back to the regular agenda, and we have a second hearing, and then we'll just go through the agenda. So if we can please, Madam Clerk, here. The second hearing for the evening hearing number two, or I think it was hearing your number.