Long Beach Harbor Project Failed to Hire Poor, Critics Allege

Long Beach’s application for $40 million in federal assistance to build its showcase harbor development had all the right hooks.

The city had suffered serious economic woes because of the Navy’s pullout, the grant applicants said, with high concentrations of the poor in the area around the Queensway Bay project.

The $40-million construction contract could ease the poverty by providing job training to “unemployed and underemployed Long Beach residents,” the application said. The city promised direct placement and on-the-job training. Long Beach got its money.

Now, with the project’s completion rapidly approaching, angry legal aid lawyers say the application was an empty promise. Few, if any, residents from the city’s poorest neighborhoods have been hired.

However, federal regulations governing projects of this type set a goal of making 30% of all new hires local residents who live in low-income residential areas.

A complaint filed on behalf of nine local residents and the Carmelitos Tenants Assn. by the Long Beach Legal Aid Foundation asks federal regulators to step in and enforce the contract.

Attorneys are asking for a halt in all other funding to the city from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department. Long Beach “totally breached its legal obligation,” said Dennis Rockway of the Legal Aid Foundation.

The city on Wednesday could cite only four local residents among the dozens working on the project. Heather Mahood, the principal deputy with the city attorney’s office, conceded that ultimately it is the city’s responsibility to make sure requirements are being met.