Long Beach to create partnerships, employment opportunities to help improve Black residents’ lives – Press Telegram

Long Beach is continuing its work to address the needs and barriers that Black residents face to improve their well-being and livelihood.

As such, the City Council this week moved forward with two actions that address employment, economic stability and access to opportunities for Long Beach’s Black community. The city’s Health and Human Services Department will work with local agencies to present the results of a health needs assessment and the city will look internally at ways to increase employment opportunities for Black residents.

These actions were guided by the findings of the city’s Black Community Health Strengths and Needs Assessment, which the health department presented last year.

The assessment was designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the city’s Black population and inform equitable policy decisions, according to the staff report. The city’s initial data results from the assessment showed that in the past year, several members of Long Beach’s Black community have struggled to meet their basic needs, such as access to food, transportation and housing, among other findings.

Information from residents was collected through a community survey andt listening sessions, which gave Black residents of all ages and backgrounds a voice to express their current social, economic and safety challenges living in Long Beach, officials said.

Long Beach’s Black community is composed of more than 50,000 residents, primarily in the north, central and west regions of the city, according to a staff report. The community’s long-standing presence has shaped the cultural, economic and political development of the city, the staff report said.

Despite these contributions, Black residents continue experiencing disparities in social determinants of health because of centuries of systemic racism and institutionalized discrimination, officials said.

The assessment’s data underscores the persistent disparities facing the Black community, according to the staff report. Most glaring is the common experience of discrimination and the 10-year life expectancy gap between Black men and White men. Economic instability plays a central role in these outcomes, officials said, as limited access to quality employment contributes to housing insecurity, chronic stress and poorer health outcomes over time.

“The highest-ranked needs centered on the economic well-being, mental health, housing, stability and access to resources,” Councilmember Tunua Thrash-Ntuk said during the Tuesday, Feb. 10, council meeting. “These are not just abstract issues. They shape the daily life, opportunity and longevity of communities.”

Spearheaded by Thrash-Ntuk and fellow Councilmembers Joni Ricks-Oddie and Suely Saro, the council item aims to put the assessment’s results into ways to address the community’s needs.

“As an epidemiologist, I approach health not just as access to care, but as the conditions that allow people to live well,” Ricks-Oddie said. “Employment, economic stability and access to opportunity are core social determinants of health.”

With an 8-0 vote, the City Council directed the health department to share the findings with local agencies by the end of the year to support coordinated, cross-sector efforts that meaningfully address the disparities highlighted in the assessment; and to examine how the city itself functions as a local employer and an economic pathway for Long Beach residents.

“By formally presenting these findings,” Thrash-Ntuk said, “we ensure that the lived experiences of Black residents help inform policy decisions beyond City Hall.”

City leaders said that meaningful progress toward addressing structural inequality requires coordinated action across multiple sectors. Long Beach is served by public institutions that play a central role in residents’ daily lives and influence key social determinants of health, such as education, transportation and environmental quality.

The health department will work to present the assessment’s findings to local institutions, such as Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach City College, Long Beach Transit, the Port of Long Beach and the Long Beach Airport, according to the staff report.

Several of these agencies have already worked on advancing equity, such as LBUSD’s Black Student Achievement Initiative and LBCC’s Black Student Success Center.

Following each presentation, the City Council asks the team to prepare a memo summarizing feedback and responses from legislative officials. The documentation can support accountability, capture existing initiatives and strengthen city partnerships, Thrash-Ntuk said.

Economic well-being is a major need identified by participants in the Black Community Health Strengths and Needs Assessment. About 54% of respondents reported being employed, and 34% reported that they worked multiple jobs to make ends meet.

A quarter of respondents also reported being unable to afford rent for the month, and more than half reported experiencing emotional distress when asked about mental health, according to the staff report.

These numbers are reinforced by the city’s 2025 homeless count, which reported that 1,224 Black residents lacked permanent shelter, representing about one-third of the city’s unhoused population. Nearly half of all respondents during the homeless count cited financial hardship, including job loss or the inability to afford housing, as a contributing factor.

The assessment and homeless count demonstrated a strong link between economic security and overall well-being. Difficulty finding a steady, substantial income increases the risk of housing instability, which leads to significant stress and adverse health outcomes – a result that is further exacerbated by being homeless, the staff report said.

In response, the assessment recommends investing in targeted workforce development with wraparound support, an approach the city has the infrastructure to facilitate, officials said.

As an employer of more than 5,000 people, the city is a significant economic engine, with an opportunity to support workforce equity and stability among residents, the staff report said. The prevalence of Black residents working multiple jobs suggests barriers to accessing stable, well-paying employment.

While municipal and unionized employment has historically provided pathways to economic mobility, including family-supporting wages, quality health care benefits and retirement benefits, ongoing financial stress among Black residents may point to the existence of employment deserts, officials said.

“Employment deserts are neighborhoods where residents face systematic barriers to accessing quality municipal jobs due to factors such as limited information about the opportunities or hiring practices that inevitably exclude local applicants,” Thrash-Nutk said. “The assessment makes it clear that Black communities need access to employment and may not be as well represented in the city’s workforce. So we want to try to understand what representation looks like across the city.”

The ongoing implementation of Measure JB, also known as the Long Beach Jobs Promise and which established a new system of hiring preferences for local Long Beach residents, presents an opportunity to leverage the city’s new hiring preferences to address chronic disparities in employment opportunities for Black residents, officials said.

The City Council’s item also directs an analysis of the city’s workforce, including employee racial demographics indexed by ZIP code and salary range; racial demographics of those who apply for and receive new local hiring preferences to determine rates of uptake; gender, language and ethnicity; geographic distribution; representation in leadership positions; and policy recommendations to increase local hiring in identified employment deserts.

By identifying employment deserts and developing targeted recruitment strategies, the city can directly increase economic stability for Black residents, officials said. Improving access to quality employment helps address housing insecurity and financial stress identified in the assessment.

While expanding economic opportunities is beneficial, Black community members, leaders, activists and allies have previously demanded that the city increase accountability, justice and safety for its Black residents and workers.

Long Beach will continue to uplift community-driven recommendations focused on economic well-being, according to the staff report. The city will work on improving outcomes for the Black community through expanded workforce access and long-term economic stability.

Expanding on these actions allows the assessment to serve as a guide to advance the city’s Racial Equity and Reconciliation Initiative, according to the staff report, a result of the Framework of Reconciliation, which established a policy commitment to address anti-Black racism and advance equity across city operations and partner agencies.

“Ultimately, the goal is alignment between what our community told us, what our data shows us, and what we choose to do next,” Ricks-Oddie said. “This item brings those pieces together in a way that is measurable, time-bound, and accountable. For me, this is what it looks like to treat economic equity as a public health issue and to act accordingly.”

City staffers will return to the City Council within 120 days with a report on specific policy measures to increase local hiring, outreach and recruitment at the city for Black residents.