TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all necessary documents and any subsequent amendments, including amending the award amounts, with the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office, to accept and expend Homeless Court funding in a total amount not to exceed $250,000, for the period of July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, at the discretion of the City Manager, to continue the Homeless Court Program in the City of Long Beach; and
Increase appropriations in the Health Fund Group in the Health and Human Services Department by $250,000, offset by grant revenue. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
The Office of County Supervisor Janice Hahn facilitated the launch of the Long Beach Homeless Court Program in 2021. During the two-year pilot program, the City Prosecutor’s Office and the Health and Human Services Department (Health Department) served over 200 participants by resolving misdemeanor cases, infractions, and clearing old convictions.
The Health Department currently engages in extensive outreach and services for persons experiencing persistent challenges, such as mental illness, substance use, and/or homelessness. Many of those served also have a history of non-violent, low-level misdemeanor arrests and convictions, and the Long Beach Homeless Court Program continues to remove barriers to housing and employment.
Over the past five years, the City Prosecutor’s Priority Access Diversion Program has been connecting and reconnecting persons experiencing mental illness, substance abuse and/or homelessness to residential treatment programs in lieu of prosecution. The Long Beach Homeless Court, with funding from the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office (CEO), will support the ongoing work of the Priority Access Diversion Program and the Homeless Services Division.
The grant funds will support: 1) removal of barriers to housing and employment; 2) a trauma-and resiliency-informed approach to the criminal justice system; and 3) strengthenin...
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