More low-income and temporary housing are needed, homeless task force says

A task force looking into homelessness in Huntington Beach has called for opening up more existing rental units to people in need and constructing more low-income housing in the city.

The task force, appointed last year, presented its findings and recommendations during a City County study session Monday night.

The group, made up of seven community members, broke off into subcommittees to look at police, housing, coordination of services, economic self-sufficiency and health services regarding the homeless population in Huntington Beach.

The Huntington Beach Police Department, which developed its own homeless task force with a team of officers working specifically with the homeless population, identified about 130 homeless people in the city in October 2013, police Chief Robert Handy said, citing studies conducted by the agency. Now, there are as many as 240, he said.

The city task force’s recommendations regarding policing call for a community prosecutor to develop a chronic-offender program for homeless lawbreakers and park rangers to watch over the city parks, including Central Park, where homeless people congregate.

The housing group said more existing rental units need to be made accessible and more low-income housing units added and that the city should work with nearby cities to develop temporary housing.

It also suggested acquiring shipping containers and warehouses that can be converted to short-term and transitional living and putting some of the onus on “new development” to help fund homeless housing, transitional and permanent.

The task force also recommended coordinating services, including preparing a list of resources for those in need, and creating a database of homeless people including notes about whether they are resistant to help, have substance abuse issues and any other relevant data.

It also expressed a need for a job center for homeless people who have been identified as ready to work.

In health, the task force wants the city to look at developing a medical and psychiatric clinic for homeless people, with support from a volunteer staff consisting of doctors, nurses and clerical workers.

Cost for the programs proposed by the task force were not discussed at Monday night’s study session.

Councilwoman Barbara Delgleize said the city needs to look at funding and determine if any of the suggestions overlap with existing services.

“I realize that you weren’t tasked for necessarily finding funding solutions,” Delgleize said to the task force. “Listening to your reports, it seems like, slowly, we’re getting to where there’s actually a possibility of having many of the services overlap.”

Task force member Joseph Sullivan said many services seem to overlap but that “it would take a real effort from the city” to assess all of its resources.

Council members directed staff to go over the recommendations and evaluate what can be handled with existing resources and then prioritize the other recommendations based on need.

“I think they’ve given us enough material to digest,” said Councilman Erik Peterson. “I’d rather mold it into something that can be workable.”

Task force members were asked to stay on deck to provide input.

Hector Valdez, a task force member, said the group will remain intact, ready to act if called upon again.

“Moving forward, I think the City Council needs to direct staff to look into costs of these recommendations,” he said in a follow-up email. “I believe at that point we can really see what recommendations we could or should tackle first, second, third and so on. Once we have those numbers I would love to see the task force work a little closer with council to see how we can be most effective with the funding we have.”