What should the city do when confronted with homeless individuals who refuse to go into a shelter or temporary housing?
We have far too long been told by our city electeds that we are addressing these complex issues yet many of our residents and small businesses feel it’s gotten worse. We can’t address these issues without placing some historical context in the 1st District. In 2012, City Hall moved forward with a Downtown plan that exacerbated the housing crises by building over 90% of its new housing stock as luxury units with no inclusionary policy. A decade of development with no affordable housing has only added to the problem. Thousands of our neighbors have relocated and with a devastating pandemic, many more have become unhoused.
Why does this matter? Because year over year our homeless count shows half of those experiencing homelessness are experiencing an episode for the first time. We haven’t done enough to provide support and investments to address this early. Our city currently has two Restorative Engagement to Achieve Collective Health (REACH) teams to address the needs of an estimated 5,000 unhoused individuals. It is estimated that it takes 17 contacts for someone who is unhoused to accept services. From a practical standpoint, if we do not have enough staff to make those contacts fast enough or provide those supports early, we can’t expect a different outcome.
We must make better efforts to address those who are experiencing homelessness for the first time to reduce the number of those entering chronic homelessness including those who refuse city services. Failed policies and lack of investments can no longer be ignored; we need to have tough conversations about what is possible and its efficacy. Separately, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a new policy to address the needs of those with addiction, mental health or other issues that would create a CARE Court. CARE Court offers court-ordered individualized interventions and mental health supports including housing assistance to those in need. The city’s future plans are likely contingent on the results and funding of this state’s policy.
How would you address crime in the city?
In recent months, many of our 1st District residents and city has seen an uptick in violent crime—there are no short-term solutions without seeing an increase in police presence or what I support more of is community policing, officers on bicycles and meeting with the community. However, I don’t believe that’s the long-term solution. We have to be willing to invest more in our communities particularly our youth, workforce development and reentry programs.
For example, our city’s economic recovery plan included the following investments to these programs: $2 million for our youth, $1 million for youth workforce development and $600,000 in reentry programs and in additional $2 million for early childhood education and child care services out of the $141 million of recovery funds. I include early childhood education (ECE) because it has been proven that investments in ECE help reduce the achievement gap, increase the likelihood of healthier lifestyles, lower the crime rate and reduce the overall costs to society yet electeds have historically underfunded early interventions and investments in proven supports that serves our youth, a quarter of our population.
While I understand that is not a short-term solution, it is one that is necessary to address for our children’s future and our city. When we don’t invest in our youth, meaningful workforce development or diversion programs the outcomes are cycles of repeat offenders and poor decision making. We need political will and independence from special interest to serve and invest in our communities.
The state is requiring Long Beach to make room for 26,502 new housing units by 2029. How should the 1st District be a part of that plan?
The Land Use Element has allowed many new developments to come to our district. We’ll experience more density over the coming years as we also build more in neighborhoods that are served by buses and rail lines. That’s been set by previous electeds and state mandates. But there is opportunity on how we build responsibly to meet the needs and future demands of our city and communities.
I believe there is an opportunity for our city to partner with LBUSD and LBCC to review property assets and the possibility of re-purposing properties or developing new affordable housing for subgroups like our kids who are experiencing homelessness, foster youth and low-income college students. We have to be willing to leverage our assets to serve the needs of our residents.
What would you do about the high cost of housing in Long Beach?
As state and federal programs come forward to promote clean energy, it’s important Long Beach is positioned to leverage those opportunities to provide tax incentives in new developments with clean energy features to reduce the costs of housing. Furthermore, how we reduce the cost of housing will depend on the city’s ability to reduce development fees, streamline processes and/or provide tax incentives to build responsibly across our city while preserving our historical districts.
It has been proposed by the City Council in previous years to review a housing bond to be a revenue source to subsidize housing; however, before I ask the taxpayer for more funds, we need to reduce wasteful spending on projects that are not benefitting our city or addressing the dire needs of our communities and infrastructure needs. We have lost our trust in city government when we’ve given blank checks to projects with escalating budgets like the Queen Mary, Belmont pool and the new City Hall development with no return or due diligence for our residents. These projects have handicapped our ability to address our housing crises and other issues—it’s time for new leadership.
There’s been a historical lack of investment in open space and recreational opportunities in your district. How would you secure more resources for open space?
As a parks commissioner, I have asked the tough questions and prioritized park equity at the forefront of our strategic plan. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of open and green space for residents and believe now is the time to support investments in our parks. We have to secure funding to expand our green space in park poor areas and maintain and program our park systems for our youngest to older populations to use year-round.
Our Parks, Recreation and Marine Department supports an expansive park network and programming with a lean staff and I believe adding a role to operations for grant writing purposes will generate more opportunities and materialize funds for pending projects we’ve had in our district for decades like the Cesar Chavez Master Plan and with the new redistricting, MacArthur Master Plan.
It’s also important that I work with fellow council members and our state legislators to prioritize the needs of this district for more funds like we’ve seen in MacArthur Park’s Master Plan, as the recipient of $8.5 million from the state. We need to prioritize the needs of park-poor areas across our city—a priority for the council, not just one council member.
Do you believe the city is doing enough to alleviate climate change and the effect it’s having on the city? If not, what additional actions should be taken?
The city’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan is the blueprint to reducing our greenhouse emissions and creating a more sustainable and economically resilient city. I have found over the years many of the city’s plans/intentions are lost in the implementation phase. As someone who has managed projects across the U.S. for a Fortune 500 company and now a small business owner, I believe we don’t have any trouble generating great ideas and plans, we have trouble implementing these plans with measurable goals and holding ourselves accountable.
The city often does not have funds to support or accelerate the outcomes of these plans which deters progress—so the bigger question is are we being fiscally prudent in our decision making to ensure we can address these bigger issues? We need the political will and independence to address these challenges head on. We need leadership who is willing to ask the tough questions yet understand this is not a one department or agency solution, this is a collective goal we must move towards together.
On a more practical end, one actionable item we can take on a community level is promoting and supporting urban forests as well as maintaining our tree population healthy. I have participated in many across our district and city as a community leader and parent of two scouts. It won’t solve climate change but it beautifies our neighborhoods and adds to the removal of port pollution and carbon dioxide from our air.
Parking is a huge quality of life issue in the 1st District. What, if anything, would you do about parking?
We live in a highly parking impacted area and generate probably a large portion of the city’s parking revenues. Our residents need relief and believe we need to consider every tool in our toolbox. For example, review lots to repurpose, preferential parking permits, review current parking spaces and markings and examine what is working, what’s not. Particularly as we review the safety of our residents, accidents have increased in some of the areas we’ve added new parking to and believe it needs to be revisited.
Our 1st District has some of the most dangerous intersections in our city and it’s important when we discuss parking we remain cognizant of the safety of our residents. There are also future opportunities from the federal government as we develop new housing and perhaps use federal credits to add EV charging stations, i.e parking spots. Not doing anything is not an option and believe someone who is part of the community and works with the community is needed to address these issues to improve the quality of life to economic viability of our business corridors.