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Community Briefing On Reuse of Schroeder Army Reserve Hall As PD Substation Turns Into Town Hall w/ Multiple Speakers Objecting To Planned Homeless Services Facility Included Nearby (Burnett St. west of Grand Ave.)

Homeless services provider describes planned operation, fields Q & A; Neighborhoods First's Joe Sopo says there's an alternative location available (1600 block Santa Fe) close to LB's Homeless Multi-Services Center; City Mgr. says he'll look into it


(Feb. 21, 2011) -- It was supposed to be a community briefing on City Hall's planned reuse of the Schroeder Army Reserve Hall (SE corner Willow @ Grand) as a future East Division LBPD substation. The meeting quickly turned into a Town Hall on City Hall's agreement to include a facility to offer daytime services for mentally ill homeless (part of the federal government's surplus property conveyance process) on LB Health Dept. property to the south, fronting an industrial business park along Burnett St. west of Grand Ave.



LBReport.com provides extended coverage with text, photo and video coverage, below. To view salient video, click here.

The Feb. 16 community briefing organized by Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske drew roughly 60 attendees, plus city management (including City Manager Pat West, Public Works Dir. Mike Conway, Police Chief Jim McDonnell (and multiple PD officials). It opened with a presentation on the new police facility, on which the audience members voiced support, but comments focused on the homeless facility were nearly entirely in opposition (a few in support).

Several speakers from a nearby residential neighborhood, separated from direct access by a concrete block wall but accessible via nearby city streets, voiced safety concerns. Some cited their children. Others said City Hall was inviting homeless from Long Beach and surrounding cities into ELB which they said has relatively few homeless now and is miles from LB's current homeless services.

One speaker said she works in downtown LB and has seen businesses victimized by break-ins, outside urination and defecation...and said City Hall was inviting these issues into ELB when it couldn't deal with them in another part of town. Another sought assurance that City Hall wasn't turning ELB into a skid row dumping ground for homeless.

Watching from the audience was Dave Pilon, President/CEO of Mental Health America of Los Angeles (MHALA), the privately run entity (non-profit officed in Long Beach) with which City Hall has contracted to provide homeless services at the Burnett/Grand area location. After Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske indicated that Mr. Pilon was present, he came to the microphone, responded to previous comments and fielded audience Q & A. Photo credit: Diana Lejins.

"Thanks for the warm welcome," he began, drawing some laughter. Mr. Pilon referred to the facility as a "homeless health care access center." He said he'd heard a lot of misconceptions about mental illness and about homelessness and continued:

Mr. Pilon: There's a stereotype that's perpetuated that all mentality ill people and/or all homeless people are dangerous, and it's in fact not the case. Now I know my saying that isn't going to make that big a difference to all of you, but I do want to tell you is that I really believe we are a solution to the problem and not the cause of the problem. These people, the people that you're talking about who are homeless and mentally ill, they're your neighbors, they're your fellow citizens. They don't have homes in the same sense that you do. Somebody asked well where do they go at night? Well they go back to their homes which are cardboard boxes or encampments by the river somewhere, that's their home, that's where they go to now, and there's not going to be any difference...I think that we have actually helped the problem of homelessness in Long Beach and that's why we're doing this.

Mr. Pilon invited questions, and they came quickly (reaction right, from city officials as speaker speaks):

Q/Comment: ...I know that all of us are in favor of giving our boys in blue [LBPD] a better station [applause]...but I think all of us also, and I'm sure many other people here, support facilities that do help people who but by the grace of God we are not...It's not that we don't have a heart for people who need help, but you can look on the web, you can look in the papers, you have random killings that are usually caused by someone who is not functional, stable, on their meds, so forth. And while not all of us may be a danger to society, I don't necessarily want the majority of the homeless people who are most likely going to be the ones who are going to go off their meds and not have respect for society or other individuals [inaudible] my kids or my grandkids as one individual out of the group that is going to kill someone I love.

And that is our fear, not that the group is a problem, but we have a suggestion here of putting a facility that is miles away from people it's supposed to be serving most...It's not in any way about helping those people get the help that we want them to have, to tell them to get their fare, get on a public bus or some way to get across town...

I think that there is a feeling in the public that the City has not looked out for our best interests in this [applause]

...I think as a public we'd like to challenge the Council and our Councilpeople, and not just you Gerrie [Councilwoman Schipske] but the whole city staff, to really put out a little more effort in looking out for citizens' best interests and safety, and not to be heartless, but there are realities, and I think a 17 year old girl who ran into her mom's office downtown L.A. and never came home because some homeless guy was off his meds and just happened to cross her, and that was the end...

...If we can find another location or another alternative, if we can take those funds and support your preexisting facility in Long Beach instead of having to power people over here, if there's some other arrangement that we can come to...[followed by applause]

City officials including City Manager West and Police Chief McDonnell (seated) and Councilwoman Schipske and MHALA's Pilon at the podium listened the speaker's statements. Her concerns about safety received no direct response from city officials.

Earlier in the meeting, commercial property owner Don Temple indicated that a homeless person had done roughly $1,500 worth of damage to his strip mall he owns at Spring/Palo Verde and asked Chief McDonnell how PD would handle people like that other than just a threat.

Police Chief McDonnell: On the issue of a homeless person that causes damage, certainly I think a vandalism report if it was that type of an incident, we'd follow-up with it then and see if we could get a prosecution if in fact that's what it was...We also have a couple of officers that work the homeless outreach program, and if we can use their resources to be able to get this person placed somewhere, both for treatment and for housing, they had a success rate last year of about 160 people. They primarily work downtown but they can work around the city...Ultimately, we'd like to be able to expand their reach beyond what they've been able to do, but it's up to the other cities who are looking at us as kind of a pilot, because we've had frequent success, so we look at it from a prosecution standpoint as well as actually trying to help the person and get them housed and on their feet if we can.

Mr. Temple also asked what the day to day operation of the homeless facility would be; Public Works Director Mike Conway replied that he didn't know but said its activities would be listed in a forthcoming Environmental Impact Report's project description.

With Mr. Pilon at the microphone, Councilwoman Schipske asked him to describe the types of the services his organization's planned facility would provide. He replied:

Mr. Pilon: ...Without going into a lot of detail, basically it's very similar to the services that we're providing in our program now, which is when people come in, they receive a lot of sort of like basic kind of creature comforts services if you would: they have washing machines where they can do their clothes; lockers where they can store their gear and they can get their mail from us; we do case management; we talk to them about some of the secondary symptoms they may be experiencing and help them get on medications, provide them with therapy, those are the kinds of things. But the place is pretty quiet after 5 o'clock; everybody goes back to where they came from, and I don't have any reason to think that would be any different at the facility that we're planning on Burnett St.

Next to speak was ELB realtor Joe Sopo, who said "it's not MHA; it's the location," and turned his attention to the City Manager:

Mr. Sopo: ...Mr. City Manager, two years ago I asked you about a location at 1675 Santa Fe...and you told me at that time there was [somebody else buying it so that property was unavailable]. But I went by there today and took pictures...and you know that property is still there with a for-sale sign on it, and it's plenty big enough. It's 0.6 miles from the Multi-Service Center which is the hub, if you're homeless, if you're mentally ill, anything downtrodden, you go to the multi-service center, and it's just over a half a mile from there...About that property, you said [City Manager West] that you would move heaven and earth, you'd do whatever it took, we had this meeting, and that property is still available. In fact the property across the street, it's got a big tarp on it that says Redevelopment Agency and that would be perfect, we'd give both pieces of property to MHA. It's right there where the mentally ill homeless are located. It's where they need to be serviced. It's where their need is instead of moving that population over to the east side. Would you please comment on that location?

Photo right: Diana Lejins


City Manager Pat West listening as Joe Sopo speaks, then responds from podium quoted below.
Photo credit: Diana Lejins

City Manager West: Sure, Joe. Yes, we'll do whatever we can to work with MHA to find an alternate site and we'll go back and take a look at those sites...We'll chat later, and I'll chat with MHA and we'll take a look at those sites, absolutely. [audience applause]

Next question from another audience member (directed to Councilwoman Schipske): "Frankly, aren't you a little embarrassed over finding this out? I mean, I was at that meeting when Joe proposed that, and I sat here and heard you explain that you and the rest of the city officials are doing everything you can to find alternate locations."

Councilwoman Schipske replied: "And when this meeting is over, I'm going to want to find out what the hell happened. That's the first time I heard that." [another audience member, 'Go get 'em Gerrie,' applause]

Asked by an audience member for some assurance that the area wouldn't become a dumping ground for homeless like skid row, Mr. Pilon said:

We don't bring people from outside the city of Long Beach to our services; it just doesn't happen; we serve people in the city of Long Beach; how they got there could be in a lot of different ways. I'm sorry, I can't give an assurance that some other jurisdiction isn't going to bring people here...

As previously reported by LBReport.com, the City Attorney's office says that under agreements which city management entered into with Mental Health America (part of the process to obtain the federal surplus property), if City Hall does find what it thinks would be suitable alternative location(s), Mental Health America would have to agree to it.

In after-meeting Q & A, LBReport.com asked Mr. Pilon if his organization is willing to consider an alternative site, "MHA has always been willing to consider an alternative site and we'd be happy to work with the City to find an alternative site," Mr. Pilon said.

We asked what factors he'd consider in that: "We would like something that's accessible to public transportation, something that's close to physical health care because so many of our folks have physical health care problems and so they need access to primary care, access to other services like Social Security and those kinds of things, so any site that was close by those kinds of facilities would be particularly acceptable to us."

We asked Mr. Pilon had any initial response to the Santa Fe Ave. address that Mr. Sopo gave out? "I would consider that to be just one other site that would be possible for us and we'd be happy to look at any sites that Mr. Sopo or anybody else comes up with, including the City, as possible alternatives to the subject [location] we're at."

Background

In 2007, LB City Hall began taking steps to acquire the surplus federal property at basically no cost, under a Congressionally directed process that includes a requirement (administered by HUD) to provide some type of homeless services in connection with the acquisition.

LB City Hall offered to meet this requirement by contracting with a private entity, Mental Health America, to provide services to mentally ill homeless persons during daytime hours nearby at a location on Burnett St. west of Grand Ave. near the LB Health Dept HQ. It notes that if City Hall didn't apply for the surplus property (with the homeless accommodation), the feds could have given the entire the Schroeder Hall site fronting Willow St at Grand (not just a percentage of square footage south of Willow St.) to a homeless service provider.


Homeless service site is boxed area at lower left on Burnett St., southwest of Schroeder Hall, behind Health Dept. Image source: City of LB staff report, Exhibit A. To view this document in pdf (enlargable) form, click here.

The location for Mental Health America's facility is in an industrial/business park, separated from a residential neighborhood by a block wall. Neighborhood residents have strongly objected to locating a facility that will draw mentally ill homeless persons to their neighborhood, risking childrens' safety and possible property crimes.

City officials say the facility won't be an oversight/showering feeding facility and will provide outpatient services to mentally ill homeless, helping them get off the streets.

Neighborhood advocates say drawing mentally ill homeless (from anywhere) to ELB invites them to stay and sleep in the area, including their neighborhood and beyond.

Homeowners say City Hall blindsided them by providing the minimum required notice and scheduling City Council proceedings on the proposal for December 18, 2007...a week before Christmas. In that vote, 4th district Councilman Patrick O'Donnell cited what he called then-unanswered public safety issues in voting against the City Hall application.

In seeking Council approval, city staff said the site adjacent to the Health Department is "approximately 1-acre, currently accommodating four temporary buildings for administrative staff. The site also provides secured storage and parking for various Health Department equipment and vehicles. As an accommodation for the homeless, the site would provide a suitable location for MHA's Homeless Healthcare Access Program. Further, the site would provide an isolated location with convenient access to public transportation, and, due to its location adjacent to the Health Department, possibly allow for potential joint programmatic activities."

ELB realtor Joe Sopo has strongly criticized City Hall's actions. "The process allowed the property to go to the highest bidder; this was a way for City Hall to get what it saw as free land at a neighborhood's expense," Mr. Sopo has said.


Disclosure: Realtor Joe Sopo and Mike Kowal (who hold positions in Neighborhoods First) are separately long-time LBReport.com advertisers.


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