April 8, 2025 • 10 mins
Long Beach spent $5.3 million on a year-long motel program meant to help the unhoused — but only 9 people ended up in permanent housing. Stuart breaks down the numbers, the failures, and why it’s time for a better strategy.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
All in Long beach, breaking bed down newsbenefits from all around town business.
Bring it to you.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (00:16):
And hello there, friends and neighbors, and
welcome to the All in Long Beach podcast.
I'm your host, Stuart Takahara.
Great to have you with us today.
Today we are going to be divinginto this article that was posted
on the Long Beach Post recently.
The headline says, long Beachto End Homeless Housing.
At downtown Vagabond end in June.
(00:38):
Officials say, now, this was aproject that started in 2024.
June, 2024.
So one year ago they turnedthis vagabond in this hotel.
They leased out the entire project,the, the, the entire hotel room to
turn it into a homeless encampment.
They just took 'em off thestreets, put 'em into hotels.
(00:59):
They leased the entire hotel room 60 room.
I'm looking at it right here.
It says, the city leased the 60 roommotel to try and resolve some of Long
Beach's most visible homeless encampments.
And now with only a couple months leftand viewing, uh, city officials are
reviewing the plan successes and strugglesas they prepare for an even larger
operation down on the LA riverfront.
So let's just look into.
(01:20):
What they say that they'regonna be looking for the plan,
successes and struggles, right?
So according to this article herein the Long Beach Post, there's
not a lot of successes here.
Guess how much money?
Okay, let's start here.
Guess how much money this program costsin the last year to rent this hotel
(01:41):
room out and to house all these people?
60 rooms.
Okay, in this hotel, in this motel,guess how much money we spend?
$5.3
million, $5.3
million in the last year to lease outthe Vaga Inn in this 60 Room hotel.
(02:02):
Alright, now the next questionis, all right, how many people
have gone through this program?
How many people of this $5.3
million that the state gave us, howmany people did we get into shelters?
Well, the answer to that is 90people, 90 people over the last
year have moved through this hotel,each staying an average of 182 days.
(02:26):
So six months, let's callit six months, is 180 days.
Um, they're staying 182 days, so we'llcall it 90 people every six months.
182 days on average.
90 people have moved through this hotel.
Out of the people who left the hotel.
How many do you think gotplaced into permanent housing?
(02:48):
How many people went from thestreets to this temporary hotel
to a permanent place to live?
Guess how many?
Nine.
Nine people were placedinto permanent housing?
Our $5.3
million grant that we got fromthe state of California got nine
(03:10):
people into permanent housing.
That means out of all the otherpeople that have stayed in
there, there's 90 other people.
We have a 10% success rate, 10%.
We spent $5.3
million on this program.
Now I'm breaking out a calculator here.
(03:30):
We're gonna go 5 3 0 0, 0, 0, 0.
That is $5,300,000, and we're gonnadivide this by, let's say the 90 people
that have gone through that program.
In the last year, the City of Long Beachspent our tax money temporarily housing
90 people at a cost of $58,888 per person.
(04:00):
So.
We're trying to figure out, isthis what they call a success or
is this what they're calling one ofthose, I'm gonna get the struggles.
Is this one of the struggles thatthey're, they're they're talking
about, or is this is one of thesuccesses that they're talking about?
Well, according to this articlehere, it says, according to their
(04:22):
application, to the state, thecity will have achieved its goal.
Of temporarily housing 90homeless people at the motel.
So the state gave us money, 5.2
million, $5.3
million to temporarily house 90 people.
(04:43):
That is what they consider a success?
That that is what they're pattingthemselves on the back for,
saying a job well done, 58,888
dollars per person.
And then now when this thing ends in justa couple months, where are they gonna go?
They're gonna go back to the streets.
They have nowhere else to goexcept for these nine people
(05:03):
that got into permanent housing.
And I don't even wannado the math on that.
Maybe some of you guys are math majors.
You can do stuff in your head.
I can't.
But if you take this $5.3
million that the state gave us anddivide that by the nine people who they
got into permanent housing, 'cause thatshould be the goal is permanent housing.
I don't even know what that numberis, but it's gonna be a lot.
Like way, way more, that's gonnabe close to 550, 500 $60,000.
(05:28):
Is that right?
I mean, you could buy a housefor that here in Long Beach.
And they consider this a success.
I just, I just don't get it.
I don't understand how, uh, Idon't know what math they're using.
You know, maybe call me oldschool, but I use that basic math.
I use that general math and I knowthey're trying to teach all these weird
things in, in school with kids and thisnew math kind of concept, but there's no
(05:50):
new math to where this makes any sense.
None.
So in addition to spending $58,888per person over the last year to house
90 people with a 10% res per, um,with a 10% permanent housing rate to
get those nine people into permanenthousing, the motel, as this article
(06:12):
says here from the Long Beach Post,says the motel also drew complaints
from neighbors who said the shelterprogram has brought on problem tenants
and visitors trash and other issues.
And council member Cindy Allen saidat a recent council meeting, my
office is out there every single day.
We're taking pictures of the area.
We understand the concerns.
We understand the concerns, whichconcern, the concern that we're wasting
(06:37):
taxpayer money for programs that justdon't work, that show no actual benefit.
To solving the homeless pricecrisis, the homeless problems, the
concerns of the motel becoming just aridiculously crazy cesspool out there.
It, it doesn't make any sense.
(06:57):
and what's gonna make even less sense.
Is the city of Long Beach was justawarded another $11 million grant from
the state to help fund a two year, $17.4
million plan to house the homeless livingalong the nine and a half mile segment
(07:18):
of the LA River here in Long Beach, now11 million over two years, we had 5.3
million here for one year.
So we're talking about morethan double, more than double.
What we received, and they're gonnatry and take the same playbook.
We've talked about this inanother episode where they're
looking for another hotel to rent.
It's just absolutely ridiculous onwhat we're doing here as a city.
(07:43):
How we're spending the state'smoney, how we're spending
taxpayer dollars in this cycle.
That just doesn't work.
I don't know.
In what real world business scenario,do these numbers make sense?
And to where you're gonnasay, oh wow, we spent $5.3
million and we got ninepeople off the street.
(08:03):
Great.
Here's 11 million more.
Maybe we could shoot for 20 this time.
It makes absolutely no sense to mehow this could be declared a success.
It is a total waste of time.
It is a total waste of money, and thereneeds to be a complete new approach on how
(08:28):
to spend this money that we're getting.
'cause this motel program,it just doesn't work.
It just doesn't work.
By any reasonable measure at all.
What do you think?
What should we be spending this money for?
What do you think would'vebeen a better use of our funds?
Drop your comments.
In the comments below, if you're watchingus on YouTube, drop your comments.
(08:51):
All of our action, all a lot of ourtalk takes place on our Patreon page,
so you can go and check that out.
It's in the show notes, butI wanna hear what you think.
Give us your comments.
Thanks for listening to this episodeof the All Along Beach podcast.
More coming up.
Be sure to like and subscribeif you haven't done so already.
And thanks for checking us outhere at the All Long Beach Podcast.
We'll see you in the next episode.
(09:13):
Thanks for listening to theAll In Long Beach podcast.
Tell us what you thoughton our Patreon page.
Join for free and access our chatabout this episode paid memberships.
Start at just $5 per month andget access to early episodes.
Our exclusive member chat, exclusivecontent, our private discord community.
After episode discussion, live,pop-up, video, and much more.
You can even suggest topics andguests for upcoming episodes, and
(09:36):
you can sign up to become a co-hostof this podcast in a future episode.
The link to join for freeis in the show notes.
Or type in patreon.com/allin
Long Beach.
That's patreon.com/allin
Long Beach.
Again, patreon.com/allin
Long Beach.
Thanks for listening to this episodeof the allin Long Beach podcast.
We will catch you in the next episode.
(09:57):
I.
All in Long beach, breaking bed down newsbenefits from all around town business.
Bring it to you.
Stuart - All In Long Beach (00:16):
And hello there, friends and neighbors, and
welcome to the All in Long Beach podcast.
I'm your host, Stuart Takahara.
Great to have you with us today.
Today we are going to be divinginto this article that was posted
on the Long Beach Post recently.
The headline says, long Beachto End Homeless Housing.
At downtown Vagabond end in June.
(00:38):
Officials say, now, this was aproject that started in 2024.
June, 2024.
So one year ago they turnedthis vagabond in this hotel.
They leased out the entire project,the, the, the entire hotel room to
turn it into a homeless encampment.
They just took 'em off thestreets, put 'em into hotels.
(00:59):
They leased the entire hotel room 60 room.
I'm looking at it right here.
It says, the city leased the 60 roommotel to try and resolve some of Long
Beach's most visible homeless encampments.
And now with only a couple months leftand viewing, uh, city officials are
reviewing the plan successes and strugglesas they prepare for an even larger
operation down on the LA riverfront.
So let's just look into.
(01:20):
What they say that they'regonna be looking for the plan,
successes and struggles, right?
So according to this article herein the Long Beach Post, there's
not a lot of successes here.
Guess how much money?
Okay, let's start here.
Guess how much money this program costsin the last year to rent this hotel
(01:41):
room out and to house all these people?
60 rooms.
Okay, in this hotel, in this motel,guess how much money we spend?
$5.3
million, $5.3
million in the last year to lease outthe Vaga Inn in this 60 Room hotel.
(02:02):
Alright, now the next questionis, all right, how many people
have gone through this program?
How many people of this $5.3
million that the state gave us, howmany people did we get into shelters?
Well, the answer to that is 90people, 90 people over the last
year have moved through this hotel,each staying an average of 182 days.
(02:26):
So six months, let's callit six months, is 180 days.
Um, they're staying 182 days, so we'llcall it 90 people every six months.
182 days on average.
90 people have moved through this hotel.
Out of the people who left the hotel.
How many do you think gotplaced into permanent housing?
(02:48):
How many people went from thestreets to this temporary hotel
to a permanent place to live?
Guess how many?
Nine.
Nine people were placedinto permanent housing?
Our $5.3
million grant that we got fromthe state of California got nine
(03:10):
people into permanent housing.
That means out of all the otherpeople that have stayed in
there, there's 90 other people.
We have a 10% success rate, 10%.
We spent $5.3
million on this program.
Now I'm breaking out a calculator here.
(03:30):
We're gonna go 5 3 0 0, 0, 0, 0.
That is $5,300,000, and we're gonnadivide this by, let's say the 90 people
that have gone through that program.
In the last year, the City of Long Beachspent our tax money temporarily housing
90 people at a cost of $58,888 per person.
(04:00):
So.
We're trying to figure out, isthis what they call a success or
is this what they're calling one ofthose, I'm gonna get the struggles.
Is this one of the struggles thatthey're, they're they're talking
about, or is this is one of thesuccesses that they're talking about?
Well, according to this articlehere, it says, according to their
(04:22):
application, to the state, thecity will have achieved its goal.
Of temporarily housing 90homeless people at the motel.
So the state gave us money, 5.2
million, $5.3
million to temporarily house 90 people.
(04:43):
That is what they consider a success?
That that is what they're pattingthemselves on the back for,
saying a job well done, 58,888
dollars per person.
And then now when this thing ends in justa couple months, where are they gonna go?
They're gonna go back to the streets.
They have nowhere else to goexcept for these nine people
(05:03):
that got into permanent housing.
And I don't even wannado the math on that.
Maybe some of you guys are math majors.
You can do stuff in your head.
I can't.
But if you take this $5.3
million that the state gave us anddivide that by the nine people who they
got into permanent housing, 'cause thatshould be the goal is permanent housing.
I don't even know what that numberis, but it's gonna be a lot.
Like way, way more, that's gonnabe close to 550, 500 $60,000.
(05:28):
Is that right?
I mean, you could buy a housefor that here in Long Beach.
And they consider this a success.
I just, I just don't get it.
I don't understand how, uh, Idon't know what math they're using.
You know, maybe call me oldschool, but I use that basic math.
I use that general math and I knowthey're trying to teach all these weird
things in, in school with kids and thisnew math kind of concept, but there's no
(05:50):
new math to where this makes any sense.
None.
So in addition to spending $58,888per person over the last year to house
90 people with a 10% res per, um,with a 10% permanent housing rate to
get those nine people into permanenthousing, the motel, as this article
(06:12):
says here from the Long Beach Post,says the motel also drew complaints
from neighbors who said the shelterprogram has brought on problem tenants
and visitors trash and other issues.
And council member Cindy Allen saidat a recent council meeting, my
office is out there every single day.
We're taking pictures of the area.
We understand the concerns.
We understand the concerns, whichconcern, the concern that we're wasting
(06:37):
taxpayer money for programs that justdon't work, that show no actual benefit.
To solving the homeless pricecrisis, the homeless problems, the
concerns of the motel becoming just aridiculously crazy cesspool out there.
It, it doesn't make any sense.
(06:57):
and what's gonna make even less sense.
Is the city of Long Beach was justawarded another $11 million grant from
the state to help fund a two year, $17.4
million plan to house the homeless livingalong the nine and a half mile segment
(07:18):
of the LA River here in Long Beach, now11 million over two years, we had 5.3
million here for one year.
So we're talking about morethan double, more than double.
What we received, and they're gonnatry and take the same playbook.
We've talked about this inanother episode where they're
looking for another hotel to rent.
It's just absolutely ridiculous onwhat we're doing here as a city.
(07:43):
How we're spending the state'smoney, how we're spending
taxpayer dollars in this cycle.
That just doesn't work.
I don't know.
In what real world business scenario,do these numbers make sense?
And to where you're gonnasay, oh wow, we spent $5.3
million and we got ninepeople off the street.
(08:03):
Great.
Here's 11 million more.
Maybe we could shoot for 20 this time.
It makes absolutely no sense to mehow this could be declared a success.
It is a total waste of time.
It is a total waste of money, and thereneeds to be a complete new approach on how
(08:28):
to spend this money that we're getting.
'cause this motel program,it just doesn't work.
It just doesn't work.
By any reasonable measure at all.
What do you think?
What should we be spending this money for?
What do you think would'vebeen a better use of our funds?
Drop your comments.
In the comments below, if you're watchingus on YouTube, drop your comments.
(08:51):
All of our action, all a lot of ourtalk takes place on our Patreon page,
so you can go and check that out.
It's in the show notes, butI wanna hear what you think.
Give us your comments.
Thanks for listening to this episodeof the All Along Beach podcast.
More coming up.
Be sure to like and subscribeif you haven't done so already.
And thanks for checking us outhere at the All Long Beach Podcast.
We'll see you in the next episode.
(09:13):
Thanks for listening to theAll In Long Beach podcast.
Tell us what you thoughton our Patreon page.
Join for free and access our chatabout this episode paid memberships.
Start at just $5 per month andget access to early episodes.
Our exclusive member chat, exclusivecontent, our private discord community.
After episode discussion, live,pop-up, video, and much more.
You can even suggest topics andguests for upcoming episodes, and
(09:36):
you can sign up to become a co-hostof this podcast in a future episode.
The link to join for freeis in the show notes.
Or type in patreon.com/allin
Long Beach.
That's patreon.com/allin
Long Beach.
Again, patreon.com/allin
Long Beach.
Thanks for listening to this episodeof the allin Long Beach podcast.
We will catch you in the next episode.
(09:57):
I.
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