Wednesday, February, 3, 2010
Long Beach does what Los Angeles could not--pass a Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness




Long Beach passes Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness

Five years later, and the City of Long Beach has done what Los Angeles has not been able to do—formally approve a “Ten Yen Year Plan to End Homelessness.” The Long Beach City Council unanimously voted to approve a plan designed by 450 local community members called, “Within Our Reach: A Community Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness.”

The plan includes five key strategies: housing, employment, support services, community involvement, and establishing outcomes.

In early 2005, Long Beach stakeholders including business leaders, service providers, concerned citizens, advocates, and faith leaders, met on a regular basis to design a plan to help the city reduce and end homelessness.

Although some people were skeptical of such a lofty goal, civic leaders began to see the benefits of working together to address homelessness. In 2009, 100 local volunteers surveyed the homeless population in the civic center of Long Beach. Since then, nearly 12% of the homeless population in the downtown area has been housed, showing the community that reducing homelessness is tangible.

Cities around the country have been implementing “Ten Year Plans” for the last half decade. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development mandated local jurisdictions to design plans to end homelessness as a requirement to receive federal funding. Over 200 jurisdictions responded.

The city and county of Los Angeles, however, tried a similar planning effort in 2003. A plan was designed, but no elected officials within the city or the county, formally endorsed the plan. Of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County, only Glendale, Pasadena, and now, Long Beach have approved plans.



Boyd Bowen: What a great story! Thank you City of Long Beach I have always known that this could be done. Reading this as I await an appointment for an inspection on a unit to take a homeless person off the streets or sofa of someone else's space. Sad part is it only seems to be a priority for me and homeless not the inspector.
Posted 2010-03-03 13:08:03
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