To Fight Homelessness, Long Beach Turned Meetings Into Action

With a vacancy rate of 2 percent, Long Beach’s housing market is struggling. “At some point six months ago, there were 600 vouchers out there, [but] people were not able to lease up because there was no available housing,” explains Teresa Chandler, bureau manager of Human Services for the City of Long Beach. But despite the constricted housing situation, the city is achieving strong results in its fight to reduce homelessness.

Across the whole of Los Angeles County, homelessness increased by 23 percent between 2015 and 2016—but the City of Long Beach experienced a decrease in 21 percent in their own biennial count, which compared 2015 to 2017. In a recent conversation with CityLab Latino on Facebook Live, the mayor of Long Beach, Robert García, hailed this achievement as the pride of his city.