Recommendation to request City Council support of the CARE Court framework that will create a new State policy for Mental health services - and request City Manager to examine the feasibility of the local program being administered by the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services (LBDHHS).
Fantastic. Thank you. And I was cut off a bit earlier. But but we are going to close in in memory. We do have a closing council district extension facility. We're going to move on to item number 13 and let's do a voice motion. I'm pretty sure the council councilmember supervisor was read. It was read the item on 13. Communication from councilman super not Councilwoman Allen Councilman Price recommendation to request. City Council support. For the CARE Court Framework and request City Manager to examine a local program administered by the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services. All right. Council members who bring our motion there. A second here. I'll second its price in a pricing. Okay. Price. Okay. Let's go ahead, Councilman Supriya. Okay. Thank you. I will just read one sentence from the agenda using memo that's also included in the press release from Governor Newsom. The care court framework was created using the evidence that many people can stabilize, beginning healing and exit homelessness in less restrictive community based care settings. The plan focuses on people with schizophrenia, spectrum and other psychotic disorders who may also have substance use challenges and who lack the medical decision making capacity and advances and upstream diversion from more restrictive conservatorships or incarceration. And my comments will be brief tonight before I handed over to the second of the motion. But that's not because I'm not enthusiastic about this. I can tell you that the governor made his press release on March 3rd, and this item was agenda for this meeting tonight, four days later on March 7th. I firmly believe in this because it represents a paradigm shift in the way we're dealing with this crisis. And that's exactly what our constituents have been asking for. I noted in a press Telegram editorial that it was reference that, yeah, this this problem started when our governor, Ronald Reagan, closed all the mental institutions. I'm sure we've all heard that line before, but that if you want to say that he signed a bill rather than veto it, the linchpin bill, that was in 1967. So 55 years ago, what has always struck me about that analysis is that we've had seven governors since Ronald Reagan was governor of California and both ends of the spectrum, very conservative to very progressive. And I don't think Ronald Reagan was that powerful a judge and we just lacked the will to address this. And finally, Governor Newsom has to tackle this issue head on. And I'd like our counsel to stand in support of that tonight. I also want to say that I'm fully aware that this has to be passed by the legislature and all bills are tweaked along the way. But in principle, I'd like us to support it tonight. Also, I added to this that I would like to see local control here. The item as presented is not set up that way. It's for counties. But we do have our own health department and I've already talked to the director of Health and Human Services who mentioned to me, well, this is kind of this is a civil court based system, and we don't have that ability. But you know what? It's very early on in the process. So all I'm asking is for city staff to work on a system that we might be able to have local control over. So with that, I'd like to hand it off to the Secretary of the Motion. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Supernova. And thank you for inviting me to sign on to this item. This is an item that's obviously a very important item in terms of a lot of the things that are happening in the area of criminal justice reform and early interception and connecting people with services rather than causing unforeseen or unanticipated negative interactions with law enforcement and the justice system. In recent years, we've definitely seen the landscape change and although many of our state laws have been that have been implemented were done with good intentions, there have been negative consequences of some of those. So I'm thankful that the Governor is proposing this new initiative that will help better address the needs of those most urgently in need, those with addiction related issues, those with mental health issues and concerns. Those individuals that struggle to adequately care for themselves and would truly benefit from a focused effort to get them back on the right track, will benefit from the judicial intervention that will allow first responders to be able to refer people to the CARES Court program. The CARE Court program will allow for those for whom it may be difficult or even impossible to take the first step towards making major changes to their lives be connected with services in up to 24 months of care and treatment that will help them lead to a path of stabilization and help fully independent living. The one thing that I think is is really important to note is we have so many different collaborative court processes that are available in the state of California, whether it's homeless court, white court, which is whatever it takes court, drug court and now care court are systems that are designed to help support people as they go through a process to connect with services, to get the support they need to be able to transition from one place in their lives to another in a position of strength and support. And this seems to do that. Although Councilman supervised, correct? It's so early in the process, I don't know exactly how it's going to work out, but local control would be great. But if CARE Court is similar to any other collaborative court or any other judicial intervention model, it's going to be a collaborative effort that is going to have to come through the county in many ways, because the county is going to be the county that places the order upon the individual and orders a specific treatment plan. I know that this process is expected now to start with the legislature, and I know that there's a timeline that's anticipated to go with that. My biggest concerns are the costs associated with this. And so I'm hoping that city staff can continue to track this legislation, if we will, if we write this off or if this letter of support so that we're mindful of what those costs will be. And we can advocate for L.A. County, which will be the justice system that this CARE court will be administered out of, is sufficiently funded to be able to accommodate all those who might be able to need and benefit from this treatment. So I want to thank Councilman Super now for bringing this item forth and really huge applause for the governor for being innovative in terms of connecting people with services that they need. Becoming stabilized, whether it's from substance abuse or mental health, is something that often does require judicial intervention to get people to that place. And I'm grateful for this path. Thank you. All right. I saw Councilwoman Cindy Allen raise her hand. Councilwoman? Yes. I just want to also say thank you to Councilmember Supernormal for including me on this item. We know that a significant number of homeless individuals in our street are in desperate need of additional mental health services and care. And this item explores how we can better care for people in need within our community. And the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted today unanimously to support the CARE Court program. So just thank you again, Councilman Supernormal, for bringing us for this great item. Thank you. Thank you. Before we I. I see you councilman's and any other comments inside the chambers? I have comments. How do we signal to you here? I was going to go to the people in the dais first, then we'll come here. So, Councilwoman Durham before. Her. It's a matter of trust. Okay. So thank you. This hybrid is a learning process. So first one of the thing, councilmember student Sabrina for bringing the item forward with the COA coauthors of the bill. I mean this item, you know, I do appreciate bringing this forward so that we can have conversation about what we're doing in this crisis that we have around our homelessness challenge that we face. And I think that while this is early on, I think, you know, we kind of started that conversation with I think the vice mayor had brought kind of a mental health item and how do we localize it from county to mental? So I hope that our staff would look into that as well. In addition to how are we going to partner with the state better as part of the housing plan? Because as much as we're able to provide a variety of mental health services that we can look into, ultimately all of them will need homes, stable homes in order to be able to recover and I think get back on a healthy path. So I think that to me needs to, in addition, be looked at. And I just want to mention, you know, there is there is a fine line that I'm processing between why I do understand the need to do some level of, you know , insisting people get services and treatment to whether where it's voluntary. I think it's really important then that we look into it and consider what that means and what that looks like in a way where I think it's respectful for everybody and that's a healthy process. Right. So so those are my comment and I look forward and how we can learn more and our local city can can see how we can take steps forward in some of these consideration that we're sharing on at the dias at the moment. Thank you. Certainly. Thank you. Councilman Austin. Thank you. And also I want to thank Councilmember Supernova in the COSIGNERS for bringing this forward. Obviously, this was I see this as a welcome approach to a very serious mental health and behavioral health crisis facing our streets today and exacerbating our homelessness crisis. Make no mistake about it. I want to thank you, Councilman Suber, not for for bringing it up and reminding us that we've been moving forward in a state would have failed realignment strategy for over 50 years now. And I think this really must. We need to stop it and stop it now. I will say that I think we need to be fully engaged here at the city council to ensure that whatever is decided in Sacramento, it comes with the necessary local funding support that we need, whether it's going to the county or directly to the city or pass through. We have a health department which uniquely positions this city to do a lot more than others. I think we need to look at building capacity for community, community care support, and I know we are doing that simultaneously. And I think this is going to be will require a major reprioritization of our state resources today to provide the necessary care to literally thousands of people that are that needed on the streets today. So this item has my support, my full support. And I know that there's going to be a robust conversation in Sacramento in terms of how this looks. And I think we as a city council, our city needs to be a major stakeholder at that table. Thanks. Thank you, Councilwoman Sylvia. Thank you, Vice Mayor, for the opportunity. I just want to give a huge thank you to Councilmember Supernova and Councilwoman Allen and Councilmember Price for bringing this item forward. I think it's very important, especially right now in the times that we are living in right now. This is a continuous, continuous problem in the downtown area and in the first district as a whole. One of the things that I feel is that we have individuals experiencing homelessness who are suffering from mental illness and may not have the capacity to accept services. But it is our responsibility as leaders to try to help them get off the street and get into on a pathway to secure housing. So I just want to thank you for bringing this up. And Gavin Newsom has in multiple occasions expressed one of his top priorities in the in our state is addressing the growing homelessness concern that is impacting nearly every one of our communities throughout the state. And we are and we all know this very well, the pandemic only exacerbated the already existing issue around the need for secure housing, the need to be able to feel safe and decent and living decent standards, and also to please individuals. And, you know, with mental health needs in even more vulnerable circumstances, to be able to place them in programs that will uplift them and help them get out of the path that they may be in right now. So with that said, I'm very, very hopeful for this program. This is something that we need to focus on. I hope that we continue keeping a close eye on it. But I do have some questions that that maybe you, the staff, might be able to answer some of these questions. It may be too early to even have an answer for. But also, these are some of the questions that some of my residents have been asking in regards to peer courts, first of all, and maybe I'll ask in like three questions and then if I have to queue up again, I will. But some of my residents would like to know, first off, when with the care for Fremont go into effect, if it comes to the legislature, that may be too early of a question. And also, what does outpatient model look like or can this. And if we don't have those answers right now, right now, maybe we can keep an eye out for those answers. Our director of Health and Human Services, Kelly Collopy, will do her best. Good evening, council members. So the the primary the. So it still needs to go to a vote. And at that point, there will have to be a lot of design and work. So it's not really clear yet as to when it will be implemented. We would be working very closely with the county in this process and the ability to look at referral systems and service systems and others as part of that process. And in terms of of outpatients, so it really provides different opportunities for people to engage based on the level of service need. So an outpatient opportunity could be, you know, weekly meetings with a counselor. It could be everyday meetings, it could be, you know, multiple days. So it really it can be a lot of different opportunities. But generally, outpatient is not a place that you stay overnight. And so it can be you know, there's a lot of other opportunities from there. Um, I don't know. Do you have anything you want to add to that? Okay. Thank you. Right. Thank you, Councilmember. Any other comments? I was the. Okay. What exactly is the expectations that is being set for the city? How will this seat measure what? Whether or not a local jurisdiction has met their specified duties? And what exactly are those duties? And remember, I don't think those are identified yet. So the local jurisdictions for this purpose right now as they're being mined, says County. And so I don't know what at a at a sub a sub local jurisdiction that looks like as a city. But we don't have any of those in place at this time. Thank you very much. And I knew some of this was premature, that I wanted to get them out there just in case. But thank you very much for your help. And thank you. Thank you. And again, thank you to the maker of the motion. All right. Thank you. But in at bat, my support here, I certainly can't support this sort of you know, I'm a family member and, you know, it's hard to the sort of judicial process is very hard to navigate, even for family members who have someone who's sort of caught up in the mental health, drug addiction space. It's very difficult to navigate. So having a court that's designed to specialize in this and tap into diversion, I think it makes sense. The governor's bottom line. I thanks counsel Mr. Bernoff for agreeing. Of course, we can endorse the state program. In November we took a step. I think this dovetails very well with some of the work that we're doing here in Long Beach in November. We took a step and we asked staff to begin looking at a whole menu of items that we could localize away from the County Department of Mental Health locally. And those discussions are going well. And we just did a study. And so my question for staff is how can this dovetail into this broader discussion about localizing mental health and where are we with that, if you could provide an update. So this is Tom. I'll start. Yes, we do see that there is synergy here. The council did ask us to look at how we can work on mental health, and this definitely fits into that. And we think this is a very good proposal. We do have resources. The council just allocated $100,000 last month to be able to start on that study. And we see moving this kind of components about how we can be involved into that study. So I will turn it over to Kelly to answer more on progress. Good evening. So in terms of the parties, we have been hosting meetings both with the Department of Mental Health and we're in sort of spite with the we are meeting with our local mental health representatives as well as those in the Executive Office at the Department of Mental Health, as well as with the Division of Substance Abuse or otherwise known as steps within the L.A. County Department of Public Health. So we've been meeting with both of those different teams to look at the ability to streamline resources, understand where the gaps are. We're also moving forward with identifying the advisory committee to this effort, and we anticipate that that meeting will be hopefully in the end of April, early May, as we start to move forward. And then we'll also be bringing on a consultant to support those efforts. Certainly. And that's all incredible progress. And I think thinking about the way the courts connect to this is incredibly important. So, so good work, everyone. Please remain focused on this mental health localizing the discussion. Was there any public comment on this item? If there are any members of the public that would like to speak, please line up at the podium. Or if you're attending, virtually, please use the raise hand feature or dial star nine. CNN. Oh, sorry. We have members in person. You have 3 minutes. Thank you. My name is Sherry Ingram. I am a resident. At Plum with. Apartments here on Chestnut. We as neighbors in the area, in the building, we are here as well as the immediate area is concern and question what's become of the vacant store which was once cow. Cop. Very nice call. Something else in Spanish I don't know how to pronounce without being embarrassed. It seems like we've getting a lot of runaround. Nobody knows who this person is. The property is a private, private ownership. Well, why can't the private ownership let you all know. What's going to be happening with that. Particular building? We need a grocery store. We need we need it badly. We got lots of people don't get around, as you see. I am. And a lot of other people. What's going to happen to that particular building that sits on? What the old building was. All the building still there? Someone please answer. We need a grocery store. Vons is too far and expensive. And the rest of them all. A little outreach. But for our local, all elderly disability. Persons without a car. I don't have a lot of money to pay a cab to take him there and then wait around for a cab to bring back home. Les, please find out. What's going to happen to this building. Someone, please. Well, thank you. Where? Where we are. Well, who I'm thinking of. This public comment is limited to this discussion. Promoted. If you could have a word. Miss Tatum is walking over there. Vice Mayor. Miss Tatum. Okay, great. Thank you. Is there any other public comment on this item? There is no other public comment on this item. Okay. Let's go ahead of our roll call vote. District one, district two. I District three. I. District for. I. District five. All right. District six by district seven. District eight. District nine. All right. Motion is carried. All right. Item 14.