$500,000
fund to bring supportive housing
By
Starr T. Balmer
Daily Forty-Niner
City Editor
The Long Beach Housing Trust Fund Coalition (LBHTFC) held a press meeting Tuesday
opposing the City Council’s proposal for sufficient housing. The coalition
also presented their proposal and said it would accommodate Long Beach residents
with low incomes.
Long Beach City Council proposed $500,000 a year for the Housing Trust Fund
(HTF), but Josh Butler, campaign manager for the LBHTFC, said that is not enough
to improve housing in Long Beach. Instead, the coalition is proposing $5 million
a year HTF for sufficient Long Beach housing.
“The average cost of a home is more than $500,000,” Butler said. “Only
10 percent of residents can afford to buy a home in the city.”
The coalition said their proposal would bring new affordable homes, restore
existing homes and supply permanent supportive housing.
Pamela Foddrell, speaker at the conference, described her experience with inadequate
housing and stressed the need for the $5 million. She also described the unsanitary
transitional hotels in which she lived.
“There were filthy sheets and they didn’t clean the room,” Foddrell
said. “The bathrooms were filthy.” She said she became ill and was
receiving funds for that, but it wasn’t enough to accommodate her.
Even though she lives in a two-bedroom appartment under better living conditions,
she said housing is needed in the city.
“There is a desperate need for affordable housing,” she said.
Suzzane M. Browne, attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, said
the revenues sources’s Transient Occupancy Tax, which charges hotel and
motel guests, Redevelopment Housing Set-Aside, and Real Estate Transfer Tax
will contribute to the $5 million dollars the coalition presented to the board.
Browne said the tentative vote for the proposal is 5 p.m Sept. 13 at the City
Council Chambers. |
