Temporary Homeless Shelter At Silverado Park Officially Scrapped

LONG BEACH, CA — Admist public outcry, City of Long Beach officials decided against using the gym at Silverado Park as an emergency homeless shelter this week.

Last week, residents protested at Silverado Park in an effort to show the city how much they treasure the park, one of the few green spaces available in the area, and how much they didn't want the gym there to be used as a shelter for people experiencing homelessness. On Tuesday, Mayor Rex Richardson and City Manager Tom Modica addressed the community in a letter, saying they would not use the gym as an emergency shelter after all.

"After hearing from the surrounding community, it was evident that converting a programmed community asset such as the gym in an area that does not have a lot of green space would result in significant loss of access of a community asset, even temporarily," the letter read.

Originally, the Silverado Park gym was chosen as an ideal place for the shelter because, per the city's standards, the facilities there were the best option. The announcement of the intent to turn the park's gym into an emergency shelter amidst the brutal and cold rain storms was made on Feb. 2.

City officials said Silverado's gym would have been able to hold a larger amount of people than other options and provided access to showering facilities for unhoused people who would have been sheltered there. In all this planning, however, the city didn't do any outreach in the community to weigh if the option would be viable.

In previous instances when the city looked to open more long-term shelters city officials did extensive outreach, visiting peoples' homes to answer questions and dispel myths. Because the shelter at Silverado Park was meant to be a 3-month shelter, officials said the same level of outreach was not done despite the community expecting it.

"We acknowledge we did not pause to consider other possible implications including the fear and misperceptions of people experiencing homelessness. We missed our community’s voices and concerns," officials said.

With the temporary shelter at Silverado Park scrapped, the city now looks to the future to address the state of emergency on homelessness that was proclaimed on Jan. 10. Officials said that already in recent storms, one person experiencing homelessness was reported dead.

Going forward, Richardosn said he will continue to work with community members and stakeholders to, "generate solutions and consensus on how we, together as a community, can help people right now with their journey back into housing and supportive services."