Long Beach : $90,000 Pledged to Set Up Service Center for Homeless

City officials plan to release $90,000 of the mayor’s homeless fund to an agency that wants to set up a multi-service center on Pacific Avenue.

But first, Christian Outreach Appeal must work out problems with neighborhood groups, the City Council decided Tuesday.

The organization has provided meals and services for the homeless on 3rd Street for 12 years. The new multi-service center would include some of the outreach programs, plus office space for other agencies, including veterans’ and job referral organizations. The center will provide showers, laundry and mail services.

“It’s not a shelter. It’s not a feeding station. It’s not a 24-hour hangout that will be a blight on the neighborhood,” said David Bury, project manager for Christian Outreach Appeal. The center will not have a commercial kitchen or beds and will require people to make appointments with counselors to help prevent loitering, he said.

Groups opposed to the center said that 16 social service agencies are already located within a 10-block area that and a multi-service center would be an eyesore and potential danger to area businesses, Washington Middle School and the Long Beach Day Nursery.

However, officials pointed out that the organization’s director, Jack Jensen, closed escrow on the building two weeks ago and is prepared to begin the project without the city’s help.

The council gave Jensen 30 days to provide neighborhood groups with a detailed plan before the city manager will release the first $30,000 of the mayor’s fund and a $50,000 loan from Community Development Block Grant funds.

The organization will report back to the council before it opens in February to receive the additional $60,000 from the mayor’s fund.

The fund for the homeless includes more than $90,000 donated by residents through their monthly utility bills.

“I’m one of the people who gave a dollar to the project and I wish I could get my money back,” said Candace Mead, a board member with Wrigley Assn. She was among more than 25 people who addressed the council for two hours Tuesday.

Although the council and homeless activists have pointed out the need for such a center for five years, some criticized Christian Outreach Appeal for not keeping in close contact with neighborhood groups and being unclear about whether the center would provide beds and be open 24 hours.

“The community just stumbled on it,” said Aurelia Gonzales, president of the Washington School Neighborhood Assn. “You have been very neglectful in letting the associations know.”