Preparations For Winter Shelter In Los Angeles County: Long Beach Struggles To Find A Shelter Home

Applications for agencies to operate a Winter Shelter Program were due late last month. The Winter Shelter Program is the county’s response to providing emergency shelter beds for homeless people between December 1st to March 15th.

The biggest hurdle for operating such a program… finding a location. NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) prevents agencies from finding a place to house 50 to 200 homeless people. Neighbors just don’t want to have a large emergency shelter in their neighborhood.

Ironically, people don’t want homelessness in their communities, but they are not willing to host programs that would help people get off the streets.

A Long Beach homeless agency, New Image, is struggling to find a location for Long Beach’s Winter Shelter Program. The struggle in Long Beach reflects the struggle in communities throughout Los Angeles County. Here is the article about Long Beach.

Another issue I have with the Winter Shelter Program… why only house homeless people 3-1/2 months out of the year? We should be providing shelter year round.