Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent to curb homelessness, the number of people without a home in Long Beach rose for the second year in a row \u2014 with a larger spike for people who are \u201cchronically homeless\u201d and typically most difficult to keep in permanent housing, officials announced Monday.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a reversal of fortune for a city that two years ago declared it had \u201cturned the tide\u201d<\/a> on homelessness. Since then, Long Beach has seen at least 10% more people living on the streets, and homelessness has increased in six of the last seven years \u2014 even with successes in expanding its shelter system and moving people into permanent housing.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s report relies on a \u201cPoint in Time\u201d measurement, a local census of people in shelters and living outside, and those reporting chronic problems in finding shelter.<\/p>\n Conducted by hundreds of volunteers during three days in January, the count found 3,729 people were living in interim housing, a car, van, RV, tent or makeshift shelter in Long Beach \u2014 a 3.7% bump compared with 3,595 people counted the previous year and more than double the number of those reported in 2019.<\/p>\n Learn the ins and outs behind L.A.’s housing crisis.<\/p>\n Sign up for Building Your Block, a seven-issue newsletter course from LAist that explains the obstacles around housing development in L.A. and what you can do to make things better.<\/p>\n Public health officials and academic experts say the increase reflects a sharp rise in rents, the conclusion of some pandemic-era programs and the abrupt end or delay of millions in health department funding.<\/p>\n But efforts to house people, which include hundreds of millions of dollars spent on shelter, permanent housing and outreach, have failed to stem the number of street encampments, as reflected in the report and interviews with outreach workers and shelter operators.<\/p>\n There are some bright spots: More unhoused people are living in shelters or interim housing than last year, about 30.6% versus last year\u2019s 27.5%. That comes as Long Beach has increased the beds in its shelter system by 12%, bringing it to a total 1,521 shelter beds locally. The city also reported that 1,702 people were moved into permanent housing.<\/p>\n But the proportion of people newly homeless within the past year also rose slightly, to 12.4% from 10.9%, while the share of people self-reporting as chronically homelessness, meaning long-term or repeated bouts of homelessness tied with mental illness or substance use, rose by double digits to 58% from 46.7%.<\/p>\n At the Multi-Service Center, which recently reopened after renovations, staffers say they are taking in an enormous amount of newly homeless people \u2014 more than twice the amount observed in the Point in Time count.<\/p>\n Last year alone, the facility saw more than 3,000 new people \u2014 at least 20 to 30 new people on a daily basis.<\/p>\n Meanwhile the situation outside Long Beach has grown more favorable, or at least stayed flat. Pasadena\u2019s homeless population dropped by four people this year while Orange County saw just over 1,000 fewer people this year than in 2024 \u2014 a 13.7% drop in their biennial report.<\/p>\n While it has yet to report this year\u2019s count, Los Angeles County last year saw a 4% drop<\/a> in its homeless population \u2014 the second decline in a row.<\/p>\n In struggling to explain the continued growth of homelessness in Long Beach, public health officials acknowledged that the reasons are not fully known, but pointed to the growing body of evidence that housing costs<\/a> are an underlying cause.<\/p>\n Homeless respondents have consistently reported that a high cost of living, followed by familial strife and mental illness, is the primary reason they\u2019re living on the streets. Forty percent said financial and employment were their top reason, followed by family disruption and mental health.<\/p>\n There is also a massive demand in Long Beach for rental subsidies. In the three months of a new rental aid program<\/a> \u2014 which officials say will only be able to help 250 households a year \u2014 the city has already received more than 3,500 applications. Of those, about 50 households have been enrolled.<\/p>\n City officials also pointed the finger at federal cuts to the Emergency Housing Voucher program. The program, launched in 2021, provides housing for 582 households locally \u2014 particularly for those considered chronically homeless or at risk of falling back into homelessness.<\/p>\n But funding for the program is set to run out, far faster than expected, as rising rent costs have coincided with a Republican-led Congress unwilling to renew it.<\/p>\n