TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to work with Homeless Services Department, Police Department, Mental Evaluation Units, HEART Team, Quality of Life Officers, Marine Patrol, Public Works, and Parks Recreation and Marine Department to report back on how the City can better address or enforce beach violations as well as the associated impacts it has on our beaches and residents. This should include: possible ordinance changes to improve the enforceability of violations of beach hours; added methods of preventing alcohol and drug use on our beaches through the City municipal code and through changes to current enforcement practices; and approaches to minimize trash, human waste, food waste, and large-scale littering on our beaches.
DISCUSSION
The beaches of Long Beach are some of our most significant amenities. Our stretch of coastline is used by residents as well as visitors for recreation year round. Whether you are swimming, exercising, bike riding, building sand castles, playing volleyball, kite surfing, or just enjoying the sun and sea breeze, our beaches have something for you.
However, there have been growing concerns from many neighborhoods about the usage of our beaches. Homelessness in Long Beach as well as throughout the state continues to be a major issue that is difficult to solve and causes increasingly extreme and emotional responses from people on all sides of the topic.
Recently several City departments including the Police, Parks, Recreation and Marine, Public Works, and Homeless Outreach conducted a coordinated effort to provide assistance to those beginning to construct encampments on the beach by providing services to those interested and willing to get their lives back on track, and enforcement for those who refused services or were found breaking other more significant laws. It is anticipated that similar efforts will be conducted on an ongoing basis moving forward to stop large-scale encampments like those we have seen in...
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