Long Beach : Funds for Homeless Center
A proposal for a larger drop-in center to serve the homeless mentally ill in Long Beach got a $21,800 boost this week.
Audrey Langslet, former chairman of the Mayor’s Task Force on the Homeless, handed the Mental Health Assn. in Los Angeles County a check for $8,900--proceeds from the opening night of a three-day promotion last fall for area restaurants. The Junior Chamber of Commerce contributed $2,000.
The money, matched dollar for dollar by the Mental Health Assn., will be the seed money for a new center where the homeless mentally ill can take showers, get help from mental health professionals and receive various social services.
The current center at 507 E. Broadway is “extremely small,” Langslet said. The task force estimates that the city has 5,000 homeless people, 25% of them mentally ill. City officials, however, have said these numbers are too high.
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