{"id":335438,"date":"2026-05-28T03:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T03:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/335438\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T03:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T03:18:06","slug":"1-week-before-election-long-beach-leaders-face-accountability-questions-over-homeless-response-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/335438\/","title":{"rendered":"1 week before election, Long Beach leaders face accountability questions over homeless response \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

With just one week before Long Beach voters head to the polls, city leaders are standing by the leadership overseeing the city\u2019s homeless response<\/a> despite mounting criticism over oversight failures, controversial contracts and rising homelessness.<\/p>\n

NBC Los Angeles spent weeks asking Long Beach elected officials a direct question: Do they still have confidence in the leadership of the city\u2019s Homeless Bureau?<\/p>\n

\u201cI do, absolutely,\u201d Long Beach City Manager Tom Modica said when asked whether he still has confidence in the leadership of the Homeless Bureau. \u201cThey\u2019ve done everything we\u2019ve asked them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modica defended the bureau despite a series of controversies that have intensified scrutiny over the city\u2019s homeless response, including an audit that exposed red flags tied to a $24 million contract with a homeless services provider later fired by the city, a failed tiny home project that cost taxpayers nearly $3 million and more than 60 reported deaths in city shelters between 2021 and 2024.<\/p>\n

Homelessness in Long Beach has also continued to rise during that period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things happen, things are going to happen,\u201d Modica said. \u201cWhat I look for is, how do you respond to those? So this team has responded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Rex Richardson also defended the city\u2019s accountability systems, though he stopped short of directly endorsing specific Homeless Bureau leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have utmost confidence that the city of Long Beach … our author, our entire team, our city management,” Richardson said. “We are going to hold every single contractor accountable.”<\/p>\n

The mayor noted that staffing decisions are handled by the city manager\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

NBCLA reached out repeatedly to every member of the Long Beach City Council over several weeks, asking whether they still had confidence in the leadership overseeing the city\u2019s homeless response.<\/p>\n

Some answered directly. Others declined or did not respond.<\/p>\n

At the city-sponsored Pride parade, Councilmember Kristina Duggan initially appeared reluctant to discuss the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing Pride today,\u201d Duggan said initially. After further questioning, Duggan answered directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have confidence that we\u2019re moving to a good place,\u201d she said. \u201cI have confidence in the Homeless Bureau.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmember Cindy Allen also expressed confidence in the city\u2019s homeless leadership while acknowledging concerns about oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think there have been issues with contracting, and better monitoring of these contract to make sure taxpayer dollars are not being taken advantage of,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Mary Zendejas and Vice Mayor Roberto Uranga left the Pride event before NBCLA could ask them the question in person.<\/p>\n

Uranga\u2019s office later said he was unavailable and referred questions to city staff.<\/p>\n

Zendejas and two other councilmembers never responded to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie\u2019s office referred NBCLA to the City Manager\u2019s Office and the Health Department for comment.<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Tunua Thrash-Ntuk\u2019s office pointed to the ongoing audit into the city\u2019s homeless contracting issues, saying she remains committed to accountability but did not directly answer whether she still has confidence in current leadership.<\/p>\n

When NBCLA approached District 5 Councilmember Megan Kerr at the same Pride event, she declined to answer the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what, we are here to celebrate pride. I\u2019m going to go onto my float, and we can talk about that another time,\u201d said Kerr.<\/p>\n

NBCLA told Keer we have been trying\u00a0to talk with her for two weeks. Kerr then entered a golf cart and left the event area.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave a great Sunday. Enjoy,\u201d she said before driving away.<\/p>\n

NBCLA contacted Kerr\u2019s office again to offer another opportunity to answer the question.<\/p>\n

As of publication, her office had not responded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just one week before Long Beach voters head to the polls, city leaders are standing by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1493,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-335438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-homelessness","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}