Winter Shelter Blues

City of Long Beach has the winter shelter blues again this year. Every year as the date nears when the winter shelter is mandated to open there is a problem about making that happen. What is so hard about this? There is to be a winter shelter for homeless every year, but at the last minute it can not be done or done on time.

Will have to finish this post later ~ Internet time up and misplaced note with info from Press-Telegram article.

This year's funding for the Winter Shelter has been reduced to $247,000. to provide 130 beds per night for 4 months. Beds in Long Beach Winter Shelters I spent some nights at were cots. Orange County Winter Shelter the beds were mats on the floor. I am assuming the amount listed in P-T included the two meals those who run Winter Shelter are to provide.

I took my shelter experiences offline. I mentioned the 100 or more people left standing on sidewalk in rain as Shelter bus left with promise to be back to pick them up later. That never happened, the shelter was over-filled to capacity.

With a reported 3 to 4 thousand homeless in Long Beach, 130 "beds" is hardly enough to help keep homeless sheltered for the night.

The other shelter blues issue is the idea to locate the shelter in either Wilmington or Harbor City. Long Beach's Winter Shelter includes San Pedro homeless ~ Wilmington a bit closer to San Pedro. Do not know how many homeless there are in San Pedro and also Wilmington and Harbor City.

Because this problem occurs every year it seems to me a year round 24 hour permanent shelter is needed in Long Beach. Why 24 hours? The Winter Shelter rules put homeless back outside soon after 7AM and there they be until around 4 or 5 PM. Many people do manage to hold jobs and also apply for them while homeless, utilizing Winter Shelter (or the Mission, 165 bed Christian men's shelter), Lydia House for very few females, MSC program (single moms with kids mostly) or Cabrillo Village (veterans).

For most ~ an impossible dream.

Should tax payers pay for shelter for homeless citizens? is another issue.