TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to work with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Civic Innovation to create a Citywide Basic Needs Security initiative, known as “BAND Together Long Beach,” to enhance the coordination and delivery of food and housing security programs.
DISCUSSION
The Initiative should include, but not be limited to, the following:
• an online dashboard that quantifies the City’s food & housing needs and capacity to meet the need,
• a Basic Needs hotline that connects residents to food and/or shelter services,
• establish a Basic Needs Working Group within the city,
• and create a “Basic Needs” fund to support program continuity.
The Problem
While the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic leaves no household unaffected, municipalities are reprioritizing and repurposing local resources to ensure public health and safety. The coronavirus significantly exacerbates need as people stay home: workers are facing reduced hours, or worse, they are losing their jobs. Restrictions have altered retail and closed major economic sectors, and small businesses and non-profits are changing their services to meet the community's most essential needs.
Basic Needs are the resources fundamental to our survival - air to breathe, water to drink, sleep, food to eat, and shelter. “Food Security” refers to the ability to access adequate nutrition to sustain a healthy and active life. And at a basic level, housing is a secure place where one can eat, sleep, and bathe.
Studies show that in times of crisis, low-income households will sacrifice their food budget first.[1] According to the Urban Institute's Health Reform Monitoring Survey (conducted in late March, early April 2020), low-income, Hispanic, and Black adults were most likely to report that their families reduced spending on food.[2] Additionally, the coronavirus reinforces the critical role housing plays in protecting our well-being, as sheltering in place is proven cr...
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