Recommendation to direct City Manager, Long Beach Health and Human Services Department and Long Beach Police Department to report on the current state of homelessness in the City of Long Beach and report back to the City Council at a future meeting. The report should include: • Any updates on the current number of individuals facing homelessness. • Information regarding requests from the Long Beach Health and Human Services Department for additional grant funding from Los Angeles County. • Information regarding all grants received in FY 15-16 for homeless services. • Total number of funds allocated by the City for mental health services and programs. • Total number of funds allocated by the City for substance abuse prevention services and programs. • Current status on homeless individuals with substance abuse issues. • Resources provided by the City for homeless children and families.
Let's go back to our homeless items, which we thought we were going to be earlier. I apologize. So let's start. There's two of them. The first one, I believe, is item number 14. Is that right? Yes. Okay. Item 14. And then we'll take 24, which is related to that. Madam Clerk. Item 14 is communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez, Vice Mayor Lowenthal and Councilman Austin. Recommendation to direct the City Manager Language Health and Human Services Department and the Long Beach Police Department to report on the current state of homelessness in the city of Long Beach. I'm going to turn this now over to Vice Mayor Lowenthal or I'm sorry, is it Councilwoman Gonzales, actually? Thank you. So I brought for this item, as I know many people have been inquiring as to the current state of homelessness as our city is changing. There are a lot of different elements and moving parts. I know many individuals come to council each week to ask questions, and I know our health department, along with many of our community partners, are doing quite a bit in this realm to tackle the issue of homelessness and to offer more resources and to acquire grant funding and to also provide education and statistics. I can tell you firsthand that we've had about seven community watch meetings in the First District alone, and each meeting was attended by our police department, but as well as our health department, who really educated our downtown communities or West Side communities and central Long Beach communities about their work every single day in what we're doing to outreach to these populations, which I think is so very important. So this agenda item was just an informational to receive a report back related to different components that we've been hearing, not just from First District residents, but citywide. It touches on mental health services and the funds allocated substance abuse prevention services. As I think, you know, we're doing a lot of work, but I think there's certainly more we can we can do. I know we're very limited in funding, but I think in speaking with both Susan and Kelly, I know that there's a lot of work that they're doing. And in addition, homeless children and families. I did notice in a 24 report that there was a line item for families. And I notice in the reports now that I don't see that. So I wanted to actually ask about that. And in addition to the grant funding, what we're doing is specific to receiving funds from the county, which I know we've received recently, last year and so forth. And so I'll turn it over to you and the Health Department, to each of you, if there's anything you wanted to add. Now, I know we're asking for this report to come back later, but if there's any just preliminary updates you'd like to add. And then also my question related to the families section. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you to Councilmember Gonzales for bringing this item forward. We're not new to this issue, of course, but we are seeing it in all of our districts now, not just the downtown or uptown. We have many constituents that have week after week during council meetings, raised concerns about the issue. I appreciate that it is very time and resource intensive as it relates to various city departments and the IT being. How do we address this issue? It's easy to say that it's just a health department issue or just a police issue when in actuality it's our entire city that needs to address this. So thank you to the staff that we have had for many years, especially Susan Price, who's worked on this with her heart and soul and spent her career here at the city doing her best and putting our best foot forward and reminding everyone that we are a city of great compassion. So thank you for your efforts. And as you go into looking at how we could better serve the homeless, I appreciate that the work that you'll be putting into it going forward. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Sorry, I had asked a question before. No, that's okay. No, no, it's all right. I just wanted to make sure I got that answered first, so. No, that's okay. That's all right. Good evening. We do have some answers from the questions that Suzanne will provide. A short report and then answer those questions will be coming back to you with a longer, more detailed report around the rest of the data. Perfect. Thank you. Councilwoman Pryce. Okay. I'm confused. Which confused him. Oh. You know what? We're going to do another price. Why don't why don't we do page 20 of the staff report on this? Absolutely. We have our entire homeless contingent from the Health and Human Services Department, our director, Kelly Colby, bureau manager Suzanne Price for her last meeting and also Teresa Chandler. So Kelly. All right, Susan Will. We'll start by answering some of the questions for which we have the data available, and then we will complete the rest of the report when we come back to Council on the Future. Honorable mayor and city council members. Just a very brief report on some of the information that's being requested. We do a biannual homeless count every two years, and our next one is coming up on January 26, 2017. We are accepting volunteers as we speak for that homeless count and will have some very robust information to update from our prior count that was listed in this item. Additionally, I want to mention that the Homeless Services Division comprises about a $10 million annual budget, primarily with the continuum of care, the emergency shelter grant dollars, and also some county funds, regional funds that we receive for homeless veterans. Our portfolio currently in the continuum of care, is about 28.8% in mental health services for both individuals and families in the city of Long Beach. That is about a $2 million annual contribution from the continuum of care. And then for families and children, that equates to about 14%, about $1 million in our annual continuum of care application is for families with children in Long Beach that are currently experiencing homelessness. And I know that there are other requests being asked here in for the detailed report that will be coming forward. We can outline a bit more of that in our inter-departmental collaborative work with the police department and other city departments on the issue of homelessness . Okay. Thank you very much. Let me I have some council comments first. I've got three those Councilwoman Price. Thank you. Thank you to the Health Department and Susan and your team for the excellent work that you have done. I had an opportunity to have a briefing with Kelly today, so we've talked a little bit about some of these issues. And I know that I've talked with Susan in the past about homeless issues and coming up with out of the box solutions that we can try. Even on a pilot basis in parts of the city, one of the things that I've noticed and I had the opportunity to go on a ride along with Long Beach PD two weeks ago, East Division Officer Dodson took me out and I had an opportunity to work with your homeless outreach team that reported, and I was just so incredibly impressed by the approach that they take when they approach these individuals. If it's a veteran, the specific veterans team goes out. If it's someone with mental illness, the mental illness specialists go out. But the problem that I saw that is of major concern to me is a large number of the people that we saw and we contacted. And Officer Dodson was great. We we approached these people with Officer Dodson, and it was honestly, it was life changing to be able to be up close and personal and do it with him. But a number of these people have substance abuse problems. And you don't want me to get on my Prop 47 train, but I think we're starting to see more and more of that, at least where I work every day. We're starting to see more and more people addicted to drugs, and that may lead to mental illness. But what we're seeing is people who are choosing to not accept the services that we have. So you should be commended for the amazing services and resources that we offer. But the problem, in my opinion, is what do you do about the people who don't want the services? What what is our plan? What's our solution? What are we going to be doing long term for those individuals? Because more and more people are choosing to be homeless. And the idea of getting treatment is not something that says enticing for them. Above and beyond that, however, we don't really have any treatment options available for them, so we really have nothing to give them, even if they wanted to participate in some sort of a long term treatment plan, nothing that's affordable that they can that we can get funding for. So that's an area where I hope once we get the data, we can kind of focus and see what are other cities doing. What kind of support can we get from the county to try to fund some substance abuse type programs? We I can't tell you how many bike chop shops we saw while we were out there. In fact, I was looking for my own bike. If anyone sees a red cruiser with Hawaiian flowers on it, that belongs to me. But there were some very high quality, you know, bike parts all over the place and along with hypodermic needles and all sorts of things that go along with the drug addicts on the streets, lifestyle, incredibly sad. A lot of young people out there who have so much potential, I'm sure. And so, you know, we I've expressed to Susan in the past that we want to be as involved as we can be, as the department will allow us to be, and trying to help find solutions and and even implement some of them in the third district to see what works. So I want to thank you for your work. Susan is on vacation. She came in special tonight. So I thought that in order to make her trip worthwhile, I would share with her. I'm not sure if she knows, but the Grunion Gazette today had a cover story about Susan. And I'm going to read the story because ever since she was named the homeless czar, I've received nothing but emails from people in Orange County asking me if I'm leaving the DA's office to become the homeless czar because Susan and I share a name identity theft. So the news flash from the grunion today. I was tired of being, quote, just another Susan Price. The original Susan Price leaves Long Beach to be a czar. In a surprising turn of events, the County of Orange recently announced that it would be stealing one of the city of long beaches, top employees Susan Price, in order to entice her to leave the more superior local government entity. Orange County Supervisors apparently gave Price the title of homeless czar. When asked what she thought about the move, Price said, How can you pass up a job with the czar in the title? The move comes as a big surprise to the other Susan Price, who serves as a councilwoman in Long Beach and goes by the nickname Susie Price. When asked what she thought about the move, Councilman Price said Maybe now people in Long Beach won't confuse our email addresses, according to the councilwoman over the past 18 months. Many emails intended for her went to Susan Price instead. Councilwoman Price qualified any inappropriate response a resident may have received from her as being from Susan Price, she said. If you received an email response to the effective, that sounds like a First World problem or seriously, are you kidding me with that complaint? That was likely from Susan, not Susie Price. In an unrelated development, we have learned that Susie Price was recently fired from her job and in Orange County. Apparently she went to her boss and demanded that she be called the prosecution czar. Tony Rackauckas was not amused. In other news, Orange County officials were caught on tape asking how they can be more like Long Beach. The new homeless czar of Orange County was late to work on her first day because all the buildings in Orange County look the same. The Real Housewives of Orange County want the homeless czar to get a makeover so she can fit in. In The O.C., Councilwoman Price is going to be sponsoring an agenda item forbidding the hiring of anyone named Susan Price, citing email confusion as the primary reason. And Councilman Price tells the homeless czar that she better get used to the title. The other Susan Price, now that she's coming to O.C. because karma is a you know what? So we wish you the best of luck. We're looking forward to having you. Well, I'm looking forward to having you in O.C., because we'll be working across the street practically from one another, so we'll be able to meet one another. Where the homeless are currently congregating between your office and mine. The tent city. That's where we can meet and have lunch together every once in a while. So congratulations on your new position, and thank you for everything you've done for us. Thank you, sister. I appreciate it. Councilman Andrew. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm so glad to be able to be working with Susan Thursday night with the name of the czar. Maybe we can really solve a lot of problems. That's accessory. But I'm committed, my colleagues on this item because it's a great compassion, you know, for our residents who have become homeless or as homeless. You know, and I would like to ask you as a friendly if that's okay with council, I mean, you know, to include the report, what is step to, you know, the city of Long Beach and has taken a recommendation to implement from October four, you know, 2004, there was a ten year strategy in homelessness. So if she would like that, I don't know what she's made her, you know, a motion yet, but if you like, I like to use as a friendly. Yes. You know, I'd like to have a recommend it. Take the recommendation and implement from the Oct 204 ten year, you know, ready to end homelessness. So what are the steps in the city of Long Beach that's been taken? What steps have been taken by the recommendation implemented from October 2004? What steps has been taken? So just. Yeah, just taking that information. Yes, that's kind of combining the two. Sure. We can do that if. That would be fine with you. Councilman, you Ringa. Thank you, Mary. And I want to add my voice and congratulations to Susan Price, not Susie and her appointment to Orange County. I had the honor of working with Susan for a number of years when I was at the Health Department, and we worked a lot on some of these issues that she had. But aside from that, I have some questions, obviously. My district runs by well, a river runs through it. As I always like to say, the L.A. River and the L.A. River is a hotbed of homelessness. It appears there are always there. And it seems like every time that there is a sweep or a cleanup, they're back almost, almost immediately. So maybe you can help me understand the the partnership that the city has with the county of Los Angeles and Caltrans and what they do for outreach and environmental cleanups as it relates to the river and to the flood control and other areas that are highly appealable. Appeal appealable to the homeless to have their encampments. Is there. And let me explain. I guess I should explain what I want here. Every time that I get a complaint from a resident or a constituent relate regarding the homeless encampment along the river or along the freeway, we have to go through some hoops to get them out. So maybe you can can you explain for my purpose, as well as the constituents who are out there in terms of what the process is that we have to go through in order to get such encampments out of the way, out of sight. We're looking for that in the future. REPORTER Are you looking for a response now? Well, if you're not right now, obviously, yes. But if not, then I would have to wait to the report. That's fine. That's ready tonight. That's fine. We have a, you know, the current efforts. Okay. Council member Urunga Ah ah. Inter-departmental collaboration extends to a regional collaboration with the LA County Public Works Flood Control District, as well as Caltrans and a number of other. There's railroad land and a number of other areas along the L.A. River corridor. The Health Department and the police department work collaborative collaboratively with these jurisdictional land authorities because the police department and the health department are basically managing the entire city of Long Beach jurisdiction, even though those land management areas may change. And so, you know, there's been a lot of collaboration over the years with that. And L.A. County has become very diligent in doing very frequent maintenance operations along the flood control. It is a infrastructure item, not necessarily a place safe for human habitation, as we all know. And so our outreach teams are out there very regular, regularly monitoring. You know, the things that belong to the city of Long Beach primarily are the bridges, but the rest of the flood control is L.A. County jurisdiction. And so we we work hand-in-hand with them on addressing those issues. And, you know, historically, there were anywhere upwards of 400 people along the L.A. River from Queensway Bay Bridge all the way up to Artesia. It hasn't been like that in a number of years, but we're starting to see an increase along the L.A. River corridor, as well as the increase, you know, that we're dealing with citywide. Yeah. And that's and that's my concern is that there seems to be a much more emboldened, if you will, homeless community that is making those encampments there. I mean, there's an encampment right off of a will. And and and the and the river the freeway right there where it's just like taking over a whole spa. Looks like a mansion. But and I know that we've had a couple of cleanups in that in that area. However, it seems like they come back almost the next day. Is there any kind of follow up? Is there is there follow up from the police department or the other agencies? When we clean out, we have a sweep or whatever, clean up, clean out of that area. Is there any follow up immediately? Like to make sure that they don't come back? It appears like from from one day to the next they're just back at it again. Is there is there some kind of follow up that we have on it? Council member. I think that, you know, we have struggled with resource from both the street outreach perspective as well as our work with the police department on managing the various hotspot locations that we have throughout the city, as well as the two river corridors that we maintain, the San Gabriel and the L.A. River. So when you say resources, you're talking about manpower, wind power. People power. People power. All right. Well, it's a little frustrating for me, obviously, because I'm getting these I mean, almost on a daily basis, I'm getting a complaint of an encampment right at the exit, individuals who are unkempt and very highly visible to the public, and it's just unsightly. I wish that once this report is done that we can also come back with some solutions as to how we can make it more lasting. And I know that what happens on many occasions is that when we might. Have a sweep or a cleanup and they end up going into the neighborhoods. So we need some more real, lasting solutions to this issue because they're not going away. In fact, we're finding that they're increasing. So we need to find more solutions to this situation that be reactive by being proactive. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Supernanny. Thank you. Regarding the Grunion article, I noticed the date on that was May 22nd and I believe the Go Forth Friday newsletter scooped the grunion there. Apologies to Harry Salts gave her, but we ran an article titled Susan Price not Susie headed to Orange County and we covered her fell farewell party. And Susan, you mentioned me in your farewell address and thank you for that. And that was very humbling. And I appreciate that. I would. You had a quote on on Thursday night, Susan, and it was about I'll put you on the spot here. It's about the 1% factor. And I just want to commend you for how much your department has done that. If we go by the statistics, the homeless population in Long Beach should be much larger than it actually is. And due to your diligence and your great work, it's a fraction of the size. Is it actually, which I'd like you to kind of elaborate on that formula and how you work that. Council member super. And I was referring to the 1% of any city's population that the national statistic would be homeless. And within the city of Long Beach, being a city of half a million people, that should be around 5000 people. But in our 2015 homeless count, which I have right here, it's 2345. And I really attribute that to a perfect storm that started in 1987 with the Task Force on Homelessness that had a vision to create a coordinated entry point, which in 1999 it realized in the Multi-Service Center over on the west side of the city. The other part of that perfect storm was that the Base Realignment and Closure Act that created the 26 acre villages at Cabrillo, which the original conveyance was somewhere around 860 people that would be housed in affordable housing to date were up around 1300, I believe, with some additional phases of development, housing and affordability over there at the villages at Cabrillo. So, you know, this is a this is a model system of care. I've been very fortunate to be a part of it all of these years, but ultimately it works very well. And it is an interdepartmental collaboration between all the different departments to try to mitigate street homelessness as well as address service, service needs and housing needs of our populations. So every department has been involved in that. Thank you for that explanation. And I think we know that we're going to stay after this. We're going to work very hard on the issues. My counsel there certainly has my first year in office, but I just wanted to commend you at this time for the great work in the past. Thank you. Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to just first acknowledge our health department, and particularly Susan Price, who's done a fantastic job within this space. I've had the chance to work with her on the Windows Winter Shelter for a number of years, and it's been a great experience. And the residents have really, you know, have they're comfortable with our winter shelter. So I want to start off by just acknowledging her. I want to I want to just mention. I don't think it makes as much sense for me to point out the small new nuances. But we have some major issues that we have to think big about, and I'm hoping that this is an opportunity to talk about them. So, one, we need a long term plan for winter shelter. So there's not an emergency every year. We've talked about that, but that's something that I hope can be addressed in this report. We need to talk about the expansion of shelters in general within our city. I think with within the conversation about the L.A. River restoration, the I 17 corridor project in the 1991 freeway modernization, I think now is an important time to start thinking about how our interests, how those projects can align to fix what I believe is one of the one of the unsafe is freeway intersections with hundreds of people living living under that freeway intersection when I'm talking about the 1791. So if anyone goes down down in that area, there are literally hundreds of tents that you can only see on unless you cannot see from the public. Residents cannot see it. But if you take one or two of the on ramps or off ramps, you can see it. And the fact is, it's there. It's unsafe. It's not. It's within the city of Long Beach, but not on our agency. It's going to be very difficult to to fix this. But this is one of the worst interchanges in Southern California with some of the the most difficult homeless issue. So I hope that we have an opportunity to really think big and talk about leveraging these large scale projects to finally talk about this. Carlton Boston. Yes, thank you. And I want to express my congratulations to Susan Price for her, her role now in Orange County as designer of homelessness. Thank you for your great service to the city of Long Beach. You've been great to work with. I also want to thank Councilmember Gonzalez for allowing me to sign on to this. This item, obviously, I think homeless. This is becoming fast becoming the most serious issue facing our city on many levels, I think. I'm glad we're talking about this because we do have a more responsibility to address this issue and take on the challenge . I don't think we have much of a choice. It's our burden to share together. And leadership and governance is not easy. We're going to have to make tough decisions and lead on these issues. I think to effectively address this is going to require, and I'd like to use the basketball analogy is going to require a full court press from this entire city. From all departments, and we should also be prepared to commit more resources locally to deal with the problem. It's a complicated issue because it mostly deals with adults with substance abuse problems and as I mentioned, mental illness, poverty and the numbers are good here in the city of Long Beach, I guess if you look at the national trend, but they're still not acceptable and they are increasing. We specifically I get complaints in and I think we all get complaints from constituents about this issue. And most of the time, constituents are not complaining about the homeless. They want to do something more to help. Right. We have and Rex mentioned the L.A. River councilmember. You want to mention the L.A. River? We are having we are about to go into construction along with the forest wetlands. And we know that hundreds of homeless live in that area. We need a plan to deal with that once we start construction. They're living under our freeways. We just recently did a river cleanup with the friends of the L.A. River. And I was pretty, pretty it was pretty eye opening to go underneath the freeway underpass and see how people were living and the sheer numbers of people living under one little freeway underpass, our alleys, along our business corridors and oftentimes behind our residents, the homeless are saying no camps, our city parks. And most recently in I got a call at about 7:00 in the morning, just about a week ago with somebody set up right in broad daylight on Atlantic Avenue and 46th Street in Bixby Knolls on the sidewalk. I think the homeless are crying out and seeking attention, and we we have to respond. Of the 2300 homeless that we have, I think the staff report says that 1500 are unsheltered. I had a question for staff. How many? What is our capacity right now to provide shelter to the homeless with that? So I understand somewhere around we have 832 sheltered individuals, according to the staff report. Are we at capacity there? Somewhat of a more complicated question because the homeless count report only reflects beds that are designated for homeless persons. However, in on any given day in the city of Long Beach, there could be 1500 people sheltered in in programs like drug and alcohol programs that are not specifically designated for homeless population specifically. This report is a HUD report. So it's only those that are like homeless emergency shelter, homeless transitional programs. There's a number of other programs where people are referred and where people are sheltered or staying in transitional awaiting permanent housing placements. So in answer to your question is probably more like 1500. Unsheltered or. Sheltered, sheltered emergency and transitional. Okay. Thank you so much. And I guess I don't expect an answer tonight. Oh, I did have one other question. In terms of the work that we do as a city. How many outreach workers do we actually have to go out and provide services and do outreach to to the homeless in our city? The city of Long Beach employs three street outreach workers, but the Street Outreach Network is relatively robust. How many would you say? About 20 different hours. Join the outreach network and that consist of. Sure the outreach network is basically all of the agencies that are funded in the continuum of care and it includes veteran outreach workers, mental health outreach workers. Let's see, there are help me out. De Alba, the quality of life unit with the police department. The three staff that we have, we're the Gateway Cities COG folks. I mentioned Mental Health America. Okay. I'd like to know more about that. Our capacity to do that and what exactly the mission is when we when we're doing outreach. And again, that can come back. I would like to add a friendly of Councilmember Gonzalez that that we received some sort of recommendation from staff to improve our capacity to house homeless both in transitional and permanent housing. If you're open to that. Are you suggesting options that they come back with or choosing? Yes. That sounds good. Sounds good. Thank you. Hello. It's on the side. Okay. Sorry goes on. Thanks, Mr. Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I know that this item that was authored by Councilwoman Gonzales is asking for the state of our homelessness and the state of the services that we provide. But I think I know Councilwoman Gonzales well enough to know that it's really to lay the framework for the larger conversation that I know she and others on this council would like to have when this report comes back. I will not be on this council. And I wanted to just share some thoughts about this larger conversation. Some of my colleagues have alluded to it. I think our staff has alluded to it. But when we look at cities, communities and states that address the very same issues that we're discussing tonight, we see that there is perhaps a conceptual shift that's taking place for a very long time. We assume that you would have to deal with the issues that homeless residents. Present themselves with, such as drug addiction, abuse, mental illness, all the things that we are aware of, we talk about and I know that our staff struggle with to help address. And I'm looking at my. Friends and colleagues from the domestic violence community who know very well how it is when a victim presents herself or himself and has multiple diagnosis. And how do you approach that? And perhaps what we've been doing for far too long as a city and a community and a society is overcomplicating, adding tremendous amount of complexity to something that's quite basic, which is a fundamental need, and that's housing. And so. If we could in the larger conversation that you will all have and I will watch from home or here and be inspired by. If I can hope that you would have the conversation about just how do we come forward as a city that places Housing First? And I know we're doing a pilot project to Mr. City managers that at The Villages. Yes. So it's a housing first approach, which is housing. No questions asked. No conditions, no strings attached. So when you look at Central Florida and you look at the state of Utah, which I know many of us may not expect progressive actions to come out of the state of Utah. But I. I beg to differ. I beg to differ. If you look at their approach to homelessness, it's quite progressive. The state legislature has funded. Housing for homeless individuals without strings attached. And that conceptual shift is called Housing First. And so I would like to see our city move in that direction, which is do not put these conditions that you must be clean and sober and you must be this and you must be that in order for us to provide housing. That is a very, very, very strict and and somewhat conservative but misguided approach, because if we are concerned about our residents and housing our residents, we shouldn't attach all these conditions to it. If we want to ask ourselves, why are people settling into settlements along freeway embankments in places that we just know are so dangerous? We have to look at ourselves and see what conditions perhaps we may be placing, what requirements that we may place. Our staff our staff does a tremendous job. And I'm very. I'm I'm I'm glad that we are less than the 1%. Councilwoman Gonzales reminded me that when we do our homeless count, those are the folks that we can count. So I'm not sure if if there is a better way to get an exact count, but however we reduce it is always a success. But if I can urge my colleagues to look at how we approach solving homelessness. Understanding the state of homelessness. Understanding the resources that we have and that we are currently applying. But what are the guidelines? What is the guiding principles that this council is going to give its staff when it comes to addressing homelessness? If just like Vision Zero, we are working toward zero collisions that you have to have a guiding principle. So I hope we can be bold enough to say to our staff, housing first. And then let the professionals address the other issues. But if we are about getting our people off our streets, let's not tie any strings to them. Thank you. Councilman Gonzales. I just wanted to thank everyone for their thoughtful comments. I know this is a very large subject, and I wanted to touch on a few things that I think were very important to many of our residents. And I also wanted to include in here a time frame as to when we can come back. So I'll request that this information come back within 90 days and then we can go forward from there. But I thank my colleagues for this information. Mayor Councilmembers This is such a large topic. I don't think there's any way we can come back in 90 days. I'm going to talk to Kelly for a suggest. What would be realistic? Theresa Yeah. Six months. We were going through the continuum of care application. We were planning for a homeless count and we've lost our bureau manager. So if you could give us six months, I would appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. Six months is fine. But if we can, you know, I understand with this, you know, everything, considering we'll. Come back. It will come back at 90 days or 90 day increments with updates. So you'll see an update. That we're happy with. Yeah, yeah. This is timely and I just want to make sure that we're on track and we don't get it, you know, another year. And no, we think we can bring you data, the specific data that you requested in a report in terms of the additional planning conversations that have been going, we'll need longer time to to spend more time planning for those and to present those in a report. That would be great. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Public comment on this item. Please come forward. Hello. My name is Joanna Ferraro. I am a resident of downtown, so I pay a mortgage. I also own a small business and I do not get a paycheck to work with our people experiencing homelessness in our city. No one is paying me. I've had a father die as a homeless man and I've been in the trenches over ten years. So where I'm coming from is I need to see downtown Long Beach thrive because I'm invested 100%. And number two, I have some personal experience with this. And number three, I was told when I came to Long Beach, I went to a meeting which you were at and listen to a lot of people complain about the homelessness issue here in downtown or in Long Beach. And I asked one simple question when I really demanded the mic and I said, you know, thank you for all you do. And I still continue to say that because a lot of people cannot do what you do. They can't. It takes very thick skin. So thank you for what you're doing. But what is it that we can do to help? And since then, that's been over a year and I've done nothing but research. I've been working with every program with Alice and Crip, Steve at Dolby, Dolby to Beacon for him, villages. MH And done ride alongs with our quality of life officers. I've been doing nothing but research on my own because this is something I care very much about. And I again, I don't get paid to do this. But I will say this the one thing I'm learning, I had to write in my hand because I have to do that and get my notes on. The one thing I learned is that community education is key. And even hearing what you guys said, there's myths and actual sentences. US council members said right now, which tells me we need to educate you first and foremost, because I just heard you guys say myths not to put anyone on blast, but I was like, Oh my gosh, they don't know. They think they don't know the information. They need to know that. And I literally put together 40 a 45 minute PowerPoint, and it's the nine collaborative truths. And what it is, is is every single entity that is working in the trenches. Have said. To me over and over again, It's not jio's words. It is their words. They are the ones getting their hands dirty every day. So what is it? They agree that our community, our leaders need to know? What is it that we need to educate because they need more cheerleaders? Because when they have a title, they're going to get some people listening to them and some go at your views. A little skewed because you work for the city. So I didn't do that. I got my hands dirty and figured out what those truths are. Those truths need to be spread and educated. We need to understand our outreach workers and respect what they do and really listen to them. We need to fill the gap. The gap is that we aren't getting people accepting our services because there's a gap and we need to understand how to get that gap, dissipate that gap. We need to use preventative aspects to my time's going to run out on me. Preventative. No one wants to talk about the preventatives of homelessness. Where's our economy at? Where's minimum wage? Where are jobs at? No one's talked about that part. There's a preventative way to homelessness, too, right. We've got to look at those other things in our in our society. Last but not least, we need to involve our community leaders like me and Alice and Chris, who do this for no paycheck but care that much about this downtown in our community. Thank you. Thank you to you. Excellent. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Sharon we with Interval House. And tonight I'm also here as co-chair for the Long Beach Continuum of Care for the Homeless and on behalf of the 20 diverse and very passionate agencies working and aiming to end homelessness in our community, we are excited to be come back also to help with whatever information the city is going to provide. But we wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to our housing leader, Susan Price. And Susan has been a visionary and she has guided our collective efforts and she has helped shape Long Beach to be a model of the United States in solving and ending the issue of homelessness. And it's something that we're very, very proud of. We know there's more work to be done, but it's something that HUD, seeing what has been so effective and successful here, is now encouraging communities across our nation to create a collective, coordinated system like the one we started here at the Multi-Service Center. And so that's something that we as a community should feel proud of at Interval House. We also serve victims. We serve victims of domestic violence, primarily so many that end up homeless because they are fleeing life threatening violence in their own homes. And Susan and the city has helped us expand very critical housing programs that have literally saved lives. And for that, we're also very thankful to you. We have, under Susan's leadership, really created something that has been decreasing the numbers of homelessness in our city. And we are seeing an end to veteran homelessness. That's something that we haven't really talked about tonight, but that's something that is something that has been a collective effort and something that is real. And we only hope to continue that work. So we want to thank you, Susan, for taking us along your journey and being a part of that and for fighting for the homeless people and for changing lives in a way that no one else could. And we have a lot more work to be done. And we. Need to do more to end homelessness in our community. And we're going to take what you taught us, what you gave us, and we're going to move forward. I see and I hear a lot of interest among our communities, leaders and in our community. And we are only going to keep moving and we're going to make you proud and we love you. And we're going to miss. You immensely. And we're proud to see what's heading your way. So thank you for letting me. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hikers soon come into the house. I wanted to add. A few things to watch her and she say so beautifully. And tonight. I'm here also as a resident of the city of Long Beach. And so I'm also talking on behalf of a community. And I want to. Take this opportunity to thank. You. Suzanne, for the work done. We have done we have. Worked with you for. Over a. Decade on. Working toward. Ending homelessness. And I want to thank you for your commitment. Your hard work, your dedication. To ending. Domestic violence. And thank you for. Always having a open door policy and following and for being a wonderful leaders. And you're leaving, but you're leaving behind you. An amazing staff. That has been very. Well trained. You are leaving programs that have been implemented. And to really work toward ending. Homelessness and everything that you leave behind, you will. Continue your legacy. So thank you for everything you have done. Thank you. Next week put. Hi. I'm Alison Crisp. Most of you know, thank you for having me up here right now. First of all, I want to say I'm. Super bummed you're leaving. Thank you so much. For letting me leave long messages on your voicemail for as many times as I did. Although you guys don't let enough room to leave long messages on your voicemail. Just kidding. But serious. I have been not only just to hear. To reiterate what Giovanna. Had. Just mentioned a few minutes ago, but to also personally say, I don't think we're personally all going to hear and end homelessness. I think what we're going to need to focus here. And this comes. From myself as well, being a volunteer within the community and learning a lot within the past three years. I am a downtown business owner. And I just moved to Councilmember Orange as a. District. Thank you. I'm very I love living over there. So I understand where you're talking. About and where you're coming from. There is so much complexity to this issue. Me just being one person taking it on myself. I've actually working with Friends of Linkin Park for a couple of years ago when. I first started volunteering with them. I, I became friends with some of them that were living at the park and. Most recently helped one of them. Find housing with not just me, but that village. That is along here. That has helped get her. Housing. It takes one person at a time for those that are just not only on our hard working council and our wonderful Health and Human Services Department. That it it's what we are able to provide for our city. Is an incredible amount of outreach that helps each person individually. Our quality of life team, our caseworkers, our outreach team, our our our volunteers that are within the city that. Are out there every day, talking to. People, handing out all the type of resource cards that we have. It's not. It's an education. It's going to take some time and we're all going to be. A part of it. We all have to take accountability for it, and we all have to be a part of of this daily, daily, daily. I don't want to say it's not a problem. Daily. Complex issue. Thank you guys so much. Congratulations. I'm super bummed you're leaving, but who's taking your place? Oh, yeah. Theresa Chandler, homeless services office. Congratulations, Theresa. Yeah. Very good. You could look as it is. Sorry to see you go. First time I've seen you in person. Talk to you in a number of times. Thank you. As one who spends a great deal of time up in downtown L.A. and, quite frankly, a good portion of L.A. County. Whatever, populate whatever our homeless issue is now, you can expect it to at least double within the next two or three years. L.A. is on a full court press to. Move them out and guess where they're coming. Want to share with you an idea that some of you may have gotten an email from a relative to a specific segment of. Potentially. Homeless people were heading that off and pursuant to the fruit, if we can get their approval and I think we will be getting that from the Secretary of Veteran Affairs. There is an area down in the Marine Stadium which again, it was the area that I was dealing with the last couple weeks. Next to a building called eight. And in between that eight end structure and the there's a a storage area there for both people that have the water ski and towboats and so forth. What I am going to suggest is that what we will do is get, I believe, either eight or excuse me, 12 to 16 Airstream type trailers. And those will be for. Combat troops that are now in a program as they're going through the programs of the VA. And there are about one or two steps away from. Coming out into society 100% or as close to 100% as they can stability. And what prompted that idea was, one, I had been focusing in on that specific area, as mentioned last week or for a few weeks before. But then then the last couple of days, again, which I think many people saw, I have seen on TV, the Expos, the TV chronicling the programs, chronicling what Prince Harry has been doing with his combat veterans, so forth, and it just all merged into one. So I think that's a great location. It is only a five minute walk to two bus stops, which we would put into any place, and particularly the VA. And when we have a new A-10 that's going to be fashioned in such a manner that it will have the showers, which will be available only to them and to kids on the field trips and also special events 10 to 12 times a year. It will not be an open public restroom, but I think it's a serene setting. If you haven't, if you're not familiar with the area, go down there, look for eight end and then walk north on that green grass and that stretch. And that's. Thank you, Mr.. Good to you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Back to the council. Council's already made their comments. Please cast your votes. Yeah. Watching Kerry's. Okay. Just as a reminder to the council, we have a long agenda still left. So we're going to continue to try to get through it the best we can. Different people have to leave at different moments. And so I'm just trying to make sure that we have quorum. There's a lot of issues still ahead of the council, so I'm gonna try to get through some of these quickly. Item 13, please. 13, Madam Clerk.