A very significant part of the memo is its statement that the "lack of certainty" leaves "law enforcement officers to be less able to enforce ordinance violations..." LBREPORT.com surmises this is an unstated reference to a federal constitutional principle most recently voiced by the 9th circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Martin v. City of Boise, which opened with this statement: "We consider whether the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment bars a city from prosecuting people criminally for sleeping outside on public property when those people have no home or other shelter to go to. We conclude that it does."
The Councilmembers' agendizing memo touches a number of other hot-button homeless issues; we provide their memo's full text below.
INTRODUCTION:
Homelessness continues to be the number one issue concerning Long Beach residents. In a city where there is so much progress and opportunity is being generated every day the fact that there are those still struggling with homelessness is an issue that more attention is always needed on. The City of Long beach does a tremendous amount of work to help those in need through city operated services, as well as by partnering with other organizations and nonprofits.
However, one of the most difficult parts of addressing homelessness is the availability of shelter beds that serve to help get those in need off the streets. As winter is approaohing, and the City of Long Beach will again be opening our winter homeless shelter now seems like an appropriate time to further discuss the availability of beds, as well as opportunities to plan for and incentivize
increasing this number.
If we as a city are to improve our ability to provide shelter for those in need we must be able to know exactly how many beds there are in the City that are available for Long Beach residents struggling with homelessness. In addition to assessing the number of city operated, privately operated, and non-profit operated beds in the City that are available for sheltering the homeless, it is also important for the City to have specific data on how many rehabilitation, medical detox, and sobriety beds there are, because addiction continues to be a major issue for our current homeless population.
When asked "how many rehabilitation and detox beds are needed to adequately manage the need in Long Beach," the City Health and Human Services Department replied December 18, 2017 explaining that the data to determine the level of need for detox and substance use treatment for homeless individuals was incomplete.' However, with the lack of certainty, and likely small number of beds available in the City causing our law enforcement officers to be less able to enforce ordinance violations, an audit should be conducted of number; and types of beds for those experiencing homelessness and/or in need of treatment.
As we know there are limited numbers of these type of beds for those in need, therefore it would be further useful for the City to evaluate the feasibility of developing incentives for private and non-profit groups to establish addiction related rehabilitation and detox beds in Long Beach with the expectation that priority would be given to those in need of these services who have been referred
to them by the Long Beach Police Department or other Long Beach City entity.
RECOMMENDATION:
The City Council is requesting that the City Manager provide a report within 60 days on the number of private, non-profit, and public shelter beds that exist in Long Beach. Also include in the report, the number of rehab, medical detox, sobriety, and other addiction related beds available in Long Beach and the surrounding area. As well as include an estimate of how many of these types of
beds would be necessary to best serve the Long Beach homeless and those suffering from addiction.
Additionally, include a report on the feasibility of the City providing incentives to create additional homelessness and addiction related beds, including medical detox beds in the City of Long Beach.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact as a result of the recommended action.
LBREPORT.com has learned that the Dec. 4 Price-Pearce-Supernaw request for information comes one week before city staff plans to bring forward on at the Dec. 11 Council meeting a report being written by LB Health and Human Services Dept. staff following five meetings of an "Everyone Home Long Beach" task force chosen by Mayor Robert Garcia.
LBREPORT.com's informal efforts to obtain minutes or recordings of the Task Force's meetings and recommendations have thus far been unsuccessful. We presume its recommendations will appear within the Health/Human Services staff-prepared report that will be publicly agendized for the Dec. 11 Council meeting.
