Long Beach Briefs: Interim Housing Site Opens, City Adopt FY Budget and Launches Backyard Builders Program

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Photo by Ameer Basheer on Unsplash

 

New Interim Housing Site for Justice-Impacted Women and Families Opens in LB

The Justice, Care and Opportunities Department or JCOD, in collaboration with Holliday’s Helping Hands or HHH, celebrated the grand opening of a new interim housing site in downtown Long Beach. The new facility, located at 834 Pacific Ave., provides safe housing and essential services for justice-impacted women and families.

The 55-bed facility offers wraparound services, including case management, life skills training, job readiness, housing support and mental health resources. The site provides housing for single women, trans women, women with children and fathers with children, three meals a day and a safe place to live.

The site is part of JCOD’s Providing Opportunities for Women in Reentry or POWR program, which is focused on helping women in reentry with supportive housing, employment opportunities and other critical resources to empower their futures. Through POWR, residents can better focus on finding and maintaining employment, getting connected to physical and mental health services, participating in substance use treatment, reuniting with family and securing a permanent housing solution.

Details: jcod.lacounty.gov and hollidayshh.org.

 

Long Beach City Council Adopts Fiscal Year 2025 Budget

LONG BEACH — The Long Beach City Council Sept. 10, voted to adopt the City of Long Beach’s $3.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2025 or FY 25. The Adopted FY 25 budget maintains current services while utilizing both one-time and structural resources in a strategic and fiscally prudent way that avoids adding to the general fund structural shortfall previously projected at the start of the budget development process. These initiatives aim to shape a future where all of the city’s diverse community members have a safe, clean, and healthy place to live, work and thrive.

Long Beach is a full-service city organization providing a variety of resources and services to the community, including the provision and improvement of affordable housing; support for economic development and business assistance; the overall continuum of public safety and emergency medical response; a comprehensive, interdepartmental approach to addressing homelessness; maintenance of safe, clean and accessible parks and facilities; and support for and advancements in infrastructure and livability improvements. The Adopted FY 25 budget maintains these services and addresses the city’s most urgent one-time and structural needs for select service priority areas, like the continuation of certain programs currently funded with one-time Long Beach Recovery Act Funding like Be S.A.F.E. (Summer Activities in a Friendly Environment), BizCare, Language Access, and Re-Entry Programs.

The new investments made in the Adopted FY 25 budget take into consideration priorities from the Long Beach City Council and key areas identified in the Long Beach Strategic Vision 2030 as well as community feedback from residents received during the budget development and review process throughout the year.

Details: Read the full Press Release here

 

City Launches Backyard Builders Program

LONG BEACH —The City of Long Beach is now accepting applications for its Backyard Builders Program or program. The goal of the pilot program is to incentivize Long Beach homeowners to create an affordable rental unit on their property by providing them with comprehensive assistance for financing, designing, permitting and constructing a new accessory dwelling unit or ADU. Applications will be accepted now through Nov. 30.

About the Pilot Backyard Builders Program:

As part of the fiscal year 2024 adopted budget, the city council approved Mayor Richardson’s “Opportunity Beach” budget recommendation for the dedication of one-time general fund funding of $200,000 to pilot the Backyard Builders Program to help address the affordable housing shortage in Long Beach. Facilitated by the city’s Community Development Department and the Long Beach Housing Authority, the program will provide up to 10 eligible homeowners with a 0% interest, 30-year loan up to $250,000 to design and build an ADU on their property.

In addition, the program will provide ADU project management assistance at no cost to participating homeowners to guide them through the design, permitting, construction and lease-up processes. In exchange, homeowners must agree to rent their ADU at an affordable rate to an individual or family who meets the program income limits.

First priority will be given to homeowners who commit to renting their ADUs to households with a housing voucher issued by the Long Beach Housing Authority for a minimum of five years. Second priority, should funding be available, will be given to homeowners interested in renting their units to low-income households, defined as those earning 80% or less of the area median income, for a minimum of seven years. Loan payments are not required during the ADU construction term, and no interest will accrue on the loan as long as the ADU is rented at an affordable rate to an income-qualified tenant. After the affordability period, interest rates will increase to 3%.

To be eligible for the program, applicants must own and occupy a single-family home or a multi-family home with up to four units located in Long Beach. Applicants must also meet the program’s requirements to qualify for loan financing, including minimum credit scores and limits on debt-to-income and property loan-to-value ratios.

Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to attend one of the upcoming informational meetings before applying to learn more about the program. All meetings will present the same information. Interpretation services will be provided in Spanish, and other languages by request via the registration form. Meeting registration is strongly encouraged. To learn more about theBackyard Builders Program and to apply, as well as to register for one of the informational meetings, visit longbeach.gov/ADUloan.

Details: longbeach.gov/adus.

 

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