Long Beach : Benefit for Homeless Center to Feature Music, Poetry

A nonprofit group that hopes to open a 24-hour center for homeless people that would include poetry readings and folk music has scheduled a benefit next week.

The recently formed Stepping Stone Foundation wants to open a drop-in center in Long Beach “run by homeless people for homeless people,” said spokesman Marshall Blesofsky. The goal of the proposed center is to inform the homeless about available services and provide them with cultural activities, Blesofsky said. No site has been selected yet, he said.

The fund-raiser from 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesday at Geneva Presbyterian Church, 2625 E. 3rd St., will feature music and poetry. The requested donation is $10.

The foundation is backed by the Homeless Organizing Committee, a local group with about 130 members, most of whom are or have been homeless.

“We have very, very few services in Long Beach,” said Blesofsky, a physician’s assistant who does volunteer work for the homeless. “We want a place homeless people can call their own.”

The effort to establish a 24-hour drop-in center is separate from a plan by Christian Outreach Appeal to open a multi-service center for the homeless on Pacific Avenue.

That plan, which has drawn opposition from the Washington Middle School Neighborhood Assn., calls for a center that provides showers, laundry and mail services.