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Dedication of Long Beach Homeless
Shelter
It is a pleasure to be with you today. I am pleased to have been
able to help fund the construction of this first year-round shelter
in Long Beach. This is a major step towards developing permanent
solutions to the challenges of homelessness in our community.
You can’t ignore that we have a serious homeless problem in Los
Angeles County. But with events like today and with facilities such
as this – I am confident we will find solutions to this problem.
When we talk about the “homeless”, we are not just talking about the
man with a sign you see on the freeway on-ramp – we are talking
about, children, families, women and the elderly. Recently the
County completed a comprehensive census of how many homeless there
are in our communities. We now know there are 82,291 homeless in our
County – 20,000 of who are families, 12,000 of whom are children
under 18.
In my district, we have over 13,000 homeless on the streets each
night. Half of that population in the Long Beach area alone. Through
the findings of the “Homeless Count”, we now know how serious of a
problem we are up against and how serious of an effort it will take
to address it. These findings have triggered an unprecedented effort
in this County to take on and tackle the issue of chronic
homelessness in our communities in a regional way.
This may sound strange – but these numbers make me optimistic. Until
we know how big the problem is – we can’t begin to solve it. Now we
can.
We are stepping up to the plate. We are backing up our problems with
solutions and the funding needed to solve these problems. The Board
of Supervisors has allocated over $20 million dollars for the
expansion of shelters and services for the homeless. We are also
looking at the best way to set aside a permanent funding source for
homeless shelters and services, as well as other solutions to attack
the issue of the lack of low-income housing.
If we create hope for our homeless right here, at the community
level, it will create the action we need for the state and
federal-level response to become further involved.
50 bed shelters such as the one we are here to dedicate today may
not seem like a big thing – but even the longest journey begins with
a first step. This truly is a step in the right direction.
Thanks. God Bless America.
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