Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute an agreement, and all necessary documents and any subsequent amendments, including amending the award amounts, with the Los Angeles County Development Authority, to accept and expend Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding in an approximate amount up to $254,000, to implement a Homeless Court Pilot Program in Long Beach, for the period of April 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022, with the option to renew for three one-year periods, at the discretion of the City Manager; and Increase appropriations in the Health Fund Group in the Health and Human Services Department by $254,000, offset by grant revenue. (Citywide)
Okay. Now we'll do item 11, please, on the consent. Recommendation or a report from Health and Human Services and City Prosecutor, a recommendation to execute an agreement with the Los Angeles County Development Authority to accept and expend CDBG funding to implement a homeless court pilot program citywide. Thank you. I think we had a request from customers and they have to hear a staff report on this. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Right. Staff report, please. Yes, Mr. Mayor, this is a wonderful program. We have both our city prosecutor and our director of Health and Human Services, Kelly Collopy, to give a report. Doug, if you can maybe go first. Okay. Kelly, I think we have Kelly now. Kelly, if you can give the staff report for item number 11, please. Hello? It's. Of the. The Homeless Services Court is the best practice model that is there. So the homeless services file and we see it around the country. It operates in L.A.. County as. Well. It will be operating at the at the monthly service center one day per month. And we'll be starting with folks who are known to us in homeless services, really starting to work with them, to engage them in services, to be able to do expungements and those sorts of things. And then from that space, we'll also be bringing in a judge who will begin to work with others who may not be as known to us, but that will that are homeless and, and working to remove their different citations and others. So one of the best things about this is one of the multi-service centers that is easy to access, too, is that we'll be able to consistently engage with them, to be able to provide them services and support. And then the third is it's often like warrants and other sorts of things, misdemeanors that keep. People from the opportunity of housing or. Employment for others. And so this opportunity allows for those to be addressed and to be able to expunge those so that we're supporting people in their ability to get the services they need. With that, I'm open for any questions. Was there going to be anything additional, Mr. Monica. I think the city prosecutor was looking to contribute as well. But right now we don't have him on the line. So I think that's it for now. Thank you. Okay. Councilman in the house. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And a huge thank you to our health health department director Kelly and our city prosecutor, Doug Ford, for this program, for this pilot program. I'm super excited about it. And I feel better that I needed to pull this off of the consent calendar because it is a very important program. And I wanted to make sure that we had a little bit more on it and about it. So I really appreciate you, Director Kelly, for for giving us a little bit more on this. And I'm really excited about this. I know that my residents continue to see our homeless crisis as one of their top concerns in our district. And I know that this doesn't only affect the first district, but also, you know, city wide. So that's I I thought that this was very important to to bring off of the consent calendar as well. I think that it is very important that we do everything possible to make sure that our unhoused neighbors have the services that they need in order to get out of that cycle and be able to, you know, become the people that they're trying hard to become, which is housed and healthy and they're going to follow. And those and sorry, I'm hearing feedback. If if everybody could please mute, that would be great. So yes. So I just want to make sure that we provide our unhoused neighbors with as much services as we can. Also, as we move forward, I strongly encourage that. We also continue to include our amazing homeless service providers and our continuum of care partners in this process, and so that they can also help in shaping this program, because they're they're the ones that are out there day in and day out with our unhoused neighbors and really do know the needs of them and what is working and what is not working. And I just can't thank you enough, both the health department and our city city prosecutor for trying to find innovative ways to be able to help our residents get on the right track again. So thank you. Thank you very much. And I look forward to seeing the results of this program. Thank you. I have a report. We move on to the second and then I have a few councilmembers lined up to speak. I just want to add, I don't know that Mr. Marechal mentioned it, but the resources are coming, I believe, from the county. I think the county is helping host and sponsor this. So I also want to make sure that we thank Supervisor Hahn and just the county team. I know they've been working with the city prosecutor and staff on this. And so just wanted to note that I mean, I know it's in the report, but I just want to pull that out from the report as well. We have a second by Councilman Price. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you, Councilwoman Zendejas, for pulling this item from Cannes. Said, I'm so glad that you did. It was a great idea for you to do that. This is part of a collaborative court model that I'm a huge fan of. I staff collaborative courts myself every single week and every single day. Me and my team of over 20 attorneys refer people to homeless court in Orange County every single day. And it really is a wonderful opportunity for the continuum of care that you mentioned. Councilwoman Sun has to work to assist individual people, and it's really a person by person solution. There's no easy or swift way to address the needs of individuals because they are individual needs. And I want to applaud our health department and our city prosecutor. I've been very fortunate to get to work with Mr. Halbert in my professional capacity and learning ideas from him, and I hope to share with him some of the things that we do in our homeless court that could be implemented here in Long Beach. And he and I actually have a very successful story of an individual that we have both helped, one from the Orange County side, one from the Long Beach side with our health department. And we've gotten both health care agencies involved. And the person is doing great. They're working with the case manager stabilizing. And so it's taken a lot of effort from two different counties and caseworkers from two different counties to come together and prosecutors from two different counties to work together. But that's just an example of the kinds of things that can happen in a collaborative court. And even though she wasn't part of the collaborative court model, that individual is benefiting from the services, and the collaborative court structure will allow us to be able to do that more readily for a larger group of people. So thank you, Councilwoman Sun House, for pulling this item. Thank you to our health department director and Doug Halbert for moving forward with this program. I'm super excited about it and I think programs like this work work really well. And I know our city prosecutor is in the council chambers right now tonight, and I know he probably has a lot to say and I don't want to speak for him, but this is just one of those innovative models that he has already implemented, similar ones here in the city of Long Beach and is continuing to do . And I'm really, really pleased that he's at the forefront of our prosecution efforts in these unusual and innovative times. Thanks. Thank you. Councilmember Obsidian. Thank you so much. And of course, well, I want to thank our council members and De Haas for holding this. I think it's important for us to discuss. Obviously, this is an innovative approach, as said by my colleague, Councilmember Price. Anytime that we can eliminate barriers for individuals to reentry or rehabilitate, particularly those who have been acculturated in not homeless or unhoused situation, this is this is value added. And so I fully support this item. I'm really, really thrilled to see us moving in this direction. And I think my question might have been asked by answered by staff. But, you know, I just the only question I had is where would this be housed and whether or not it will be moved around with the staffing if that wasn't available. Obviously, we have a number of shelters in our city and we want to make sure that we are meeting the needs of all of our unhoused residents. But those are my comments and I fully support this item. Thank you for pulling it. Thank you, Councilman Allen. Yes. I also want it being Councilwoman Zendejas for pulling this off. This is just an absolutely fantastic item that builds upon all the great work that's already happening now with our staff. I also want to applaud city prosecutor Doug Halburd and the Health Department. I know that Councilwoman Pryce and I were talking about the need of these services to address all these homeless needs throughout our community. And we were talking specifically about Bixby and the Promenade. So I'm just super excited to see this item going forward. Thank you. And let me now, I think we have a prosecutor, however, on the line. I think it's connected now. Is that right? Thank you, honorable mayor. Members of the council. Can you hear me? Okay? My my compliments to the City Hall Security. I was locked out of the chambers during the beginning part of the presentation, but I'm in now, so I know that the city council has already received some information about the homeless court project and to respond to one question already made as far as locations, it is my hope that we can move it throughout the year. Initially, the homeless court will be located most likely at the Multi-Service Center, where a number of our nonprofit organizations are already located. The goal of the homeless court, obviously, is it's multifaceted. We want to help participants get connected to critical services such as mental health, substance abuse counseling and housing assistance. We also want to help homeless court participants who are already active in services so they can have outstanding infractions and misdemeanor cases resolved, potentially dismissed. We also want people experiencing homelessness who have low level warrants to get those warrants removed. And the Long Beach Police Department's warrant removal program will assist us as part of homeless court as well going forward. Also, we want homeless court participants who qualify for the Priority Access Diversion Program, which has been piloted here in Long Beach for the last couple of years. Those who are eligible may have cases dismissed, may get their fines waived. Defendants may also attend programs in lieu of jail sentences, all in an effort to help them be successful with services and to reduce any barriers to housing and or barriers to employment that come along with the criminal justice system. So if there are any further questions, one more thing. The RISE program, which the City Council has funded for the last two years, allows old cases that are eligible for Expungements to be cleared as well. And we're also going to include that service as part of homeless court. So that will be the final of the RISE program, which was started about two years ago by Mayor Garcia and the City Council with funding directly from the city. Otherwise, we really have to thank Supervisor Janice Hahn if that has not already been mentioned. We really appreciate her because she contacted us, asked us to look at the Redondo Beach program and see if we could do something similar or even better in Long Beach. And it's my hope, of course, that we improve on the Redondo Beach model and really make something that makes a difference in the homeless problem we have here in Long Beach, which does appear to be growing. Thank you. Thank you. And I have Councilmember Cipriano. Thank you. I stand in support of this item, but I would like to make a friendly amendment, and that is that we have some very strict accounting for accountability first. And the fact that we're spending it might be counting money, but it's public money. And secondly, if we wanted to expand this program in the future, we would want to have a lot of data behind this. And so what I'm asking for, if they only meet monthly, maybe quarterly reporting both that has a great analysis to it, both quantitative and qualitative. So that that's my friendly. Thank you. And customers and they have. Thank you. Council member sue for non and absolutely asset those friendlies. I think that would be very important. I think that it's going to be important to see what what this program is bringing and the results that it's bringing. And I loved hearing the example that Councilmember Price gave us a little bit ago about her success story along with our city prosecutor. I think that that is exactly what these programs are designed to do and is to see these individuals become successful and be able to live a good life moving forward and to be able to be provided those opportunities. So with that, I cannot thank you enough city prosecutor Doug and Kelly for this presentation. And of course, thank you. Thank you so much to our Supervisor Hahn, for thinking of Long Beach. She always does great work and she's always very thoughtful in keeping Long Beach and how to advance Long Beach in all aspects. And I know that in her district, our, you know, homeless crisis is very, very important to her as well. And so I'm very thankful that we have this opportunity to have this program in our city. So thank you again for everyone's collaboration and hard work on this. And I really, really can can foresee that this is going to be fantastic for for Long Beach. Thank you. With that, we have we've got three we have public comment. I think we said we did on this item, correct? Yes. We have public comment for this item. Our first speaker is Alison Crisp. Hi, guys. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor, and our council members. And I want to say thank you so, so much to council members in the House for being such a rock star and pulling this from the consent calendar to speak about it. I really appreciate hearing the presentation from both prosecutor, from our city attorney and from Director Colby and the comments that are Councilmember Price and then they have made in regards to including our continuum of care providers throughout this conversation. I've participated in a few of these counts in Redondo Beach and been there in person. Watching and seeing tears of joy just as a volunteer is just the most incredible thing and watching. So this is going to be an awesome opportunity, especially had it having at a multi-service center. I did want to just leave a reminder for our council members that moving forward, there's going to be a larger conversation that's going to happen in regards to equity and the reason why these criminal charges have occurred for those experiencing homelessness. So I do encourage our city council council members to include our continuum of care board members and service providers. In this conversation, again, the service providers do have the boots on the ground by councilmembers. And then they had mentioned earlier with the leadership and help with future conversations in regards to homeless court. I also wanted to take this opportunity to remind our council members that the CFC has experience and work with these offices in regards to all the challenges for our friends that are experiencing homelessness. It is a larger conversation that will include support from not just society but from the service providers that are within our homeless services department to address not just again, the expungement of criminal records, but to follow up in collaboration with all the department to address what's happening before, after, before and after homeless court and all the 100 of human interactions it takes to help someone from street to home. Thank you, guys. I really appreciate you guys letting me speak and. Golden Beach. Thank. Think your next speaker is Lee Charlie. Life has many chapters. One bad chapter does not mean the end of the book by the letter. I arrived in Long Beach, California, Saturday, May 2nd, 2015. I lived and slept on the putting greens at recreational golf course on seventh in four months until the village at the Gabriel had a bed available, provided a safe place to live and legal services to get my be a benefit. I have two college degrees served in the United States Navy, and the hardest job I ever had was breaking the cycle of homelessness. Every homeless person is a human being and has a story to tell. If you will, listen. Drug addiction, mental illness, domestic violence and having a criminal record are far too common. This homeless caught pilot program is a huge step in the right direction towards progress. Maslow's hierarchy of needs starts with physiological needs. Then progress towards the safety gear. Gaining employment benefits. Permanent housing is all but impossible. Having a criminal record nonviolent crime, being expunged is a great start. Legal fees are astronomical and fortunately drastically decreasing hope and increasing homelessness. This pilot program will not solve our homeless crisis, but it will help loss of self-esteem. Sane judgment never stops, and many homeless individuals are punished over and over again because of a mistake made in their past that haunts them as they sleep on a concrete floor. I hope that the City Council will vote yes on this homeless pilot program. I hope citizens will be allowed to volunteer with legal professionals for the pilot program. Ten volunteers helped spread the message for unhoused people in the city. Well, the city of Long Beach have literature for us to pass out to the UN. How can the city post signs on highly populated areas of unhoused zombie citizens? Transportation is not easy. Walking from Bixby Park to the Multi-Service Center and maybe volunteers can help set up transportation. My favorite quote from our vice president, Kamala Harris. Anyone who claims to be a leader must speak like a leader. That means speaking with integrity and truth. Thank you, Councilwoman Mary De Hart, director, director of Health and Human Services, Kelly Co-op and Doug Talbot for being leaders in Long Beach trying to do something different. Tackling our Long Beach Homeless Crisis. Let's fight for our Long Beach homeless population. Breaking the cycle of homelessness. One human being at a time. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you. Before we go to our our vote, I do want to again, just especially thank Supervisor Hahn when in discussing this process, she had the opportunity to actually provide funding to a variety of jurisdictions. And through conversations, particularly with Prosecutor Halbert and others, they settled on Long Beach as the city to do this work and through this funding from the county. And so I just want to make sure that we're just thankful for that partnership and the continued partnership that she's provided. And, of course, the prosecutor. Halbert, thank you for all your work in getting this off the ground and, of course, to our health department, but very, very important work. And I think we're all looking forward to getting a report and feedback on how it's going. So excellent work. Thank you all very much. And let's go to a roll call vote. District one. I District two. I. District three. I. District four. I. District five. I. District six. I. District seven. I. District eight. All right. District nine. Right. Motion carries. Great. Thank you very much. Item 16 is we're just reading the motion and then we're going to continue to do the first, please. So let's read the motion. Item 16 Report from Development Services Recommendation to adopt resolution allowing for the initiation of a consolidated coastal development permit in connection with the realignment of Shoreline Drive as part of the Shoemaker Bridge Replacement Project and adopt a resolution granting city manager the authority to initiate consolidated coastal development permits districts two and three.