South Bay Leader

Long Beach, CA – The Housing Authority of the City of Long Beach, located within the Department of Health and Human Services, recently received 79 Stability Housing Vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). On April 17, 2023, HUD announced Long Beach as one of eight Continuum of Care communities in California to receive Stability Housing Vouchers, which will be utilized to connect even more qualifying individuals experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness to permanent housing.

"This important addition to our voucher programs will allow us to continue to connect even more people to permanent housing, beyond what we were able to accomplish by reaching the maximum utilization of Emergency Housing Vouchers,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “The Stability Housing Vouchers are another tool in our toolbox to address homelessness here in Long Beach.”

Stability Housing Vouchers are now available to qualifying individuals through the Housing Authority, in addition to the other rental assistance such as Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) and Housing Choice Voucher programs. Stability Housing Vouchers are similar to EHVs, as they are both intended for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking or human trafficking, but do not offer additional tenant incentives such as moving expenses, security deposits and utility bill payment support, nor do they offer incentives for landowners.

Qualifying people interested in participating in the Stability Housing Voucher program can call 562.570.6985 or email HACLB@longbeach.gov.

Additionally, the City has reached maximum occupancy for its EHV program, committing all 582 qualifying voucher holders, the maximum number available for funding in Long Beach per HUD, to permanent housing. This is the first time the City has reached maximum lease ups for its EHV program time since 2021. At the start of 2023, 320 EHV were actually leased with housing. As of June 2, 547 of the 582 EHVs were leased with permanent housing, with the remaining amount committed to housing and are waiting to be processed for completion as soon as Friday, June 9. This 100% utilization rate is ahead of the nationwide average of 76.7%.

Increasing the occupancy rate for the EHV program was one of the City’s identified short-term goals established at the start of the local homelessness emergency proclamation on Jan. 10, 2023. In effort to increase housing connections, the City conducted enhanced outreach to local housing providers to educate, engage and encourage participation, which included the launch of an internal call center and hosting of community information sessions and roundtables.

Understanding that many people who are issued EHVs will not use them due to several factors, it is common practice for supportive housing jurisdictions to over-issue vouchers in order to make sure that all available vouchers are utilized and the maximum number of voucher holders are connected to housing. Once the maximum 582 vouchers are used, if anyone else has a voucher in-hand and are still actively looking for housing, the Housing Authority will work with them on alternative solutions, such as other types of available vouchers and other affordable housing units coming online. Currently, there are 342 EHV holders in the city waiting to be connected with housing.

More information about HACLB is available at longbeach.gov/haclb.

For more information on the City’s efforts to reduce homelessness in Long Beach, people may visit longbeach.gov/homelessness and follow @lbhealthdept and @longbeachcity on social media and follow the hashtag #EveryoneHomeLB.

Original source can be found here.