LONG BEACH, Calif. — On Tuesday, Long Beach City Council members unanimously approved a local emergency declaration on homelessness.

The city and county of Los Angeles recently passed similar declarations. The vote happened just ahead of Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson’s first State of the City address.

Business owners downtown said it’s an issue that has grown exponentially over the last few years.

Diana Wallace has been a bartender in downtown for nearly a decade and has watched it evolve. At this point, she said she can’t even walk to her car alone at the end of her shifts, regardless what time it is. 

“I feel like it’s dangerous to be a woman, especially a woman who comes home with cash every day,” she said. 

Wallace and the manager of R Bar, Jesus Morales, have seen the despair grow into desperation for the homeless people roaming downtown Long Beach. 

Many have obvious mental health issues, Morales noted, brazenly walking into their bar to steal customer’s food, drinks and even phones straight from the table. 

“It’s pretty bad out here at night,” Morales said. “Several people getting robbed, mugged. Just this morning, I was at this store down the street, and the homeless walked up to a guy and said, ‘What are you staring at?’ Pulled out a cigarette lighter, put it in his face and said, ‘I’ll burn you.’”

Statistics show homelessness in Long Beach has risen 62% since 2020, keeping it top of mind for city officials looking for a long-term solution.  

It’s a reality that brings tears to Chaplain Jeffrey Levine’s eyes, working on the front line of this crisis as the executive director for the Long Beach Rescue Mission.

“You hear people say, ‘Oh, well they just need to get a job’ and ‘What’s wrong with them?’” said Levine. “And it’s like, ‘Well, you know, if you’re born with heroin in your system, and you’ve been to four different foster care homes by the time you’re 6 months old, is it surprising you struggle with heroin?’”

Levine showed pictures from their recent homeless outreach, just before the storm. They met a woman who, like most living on the streets, had survived severe abuse and other forms of trauma. 

Levine said homelessness is not a problem, it’s people — a nuanced issue that can’t be solved with a one-size-fits-all approach. 

“We have to have a long game view of, ‘How are we demonstrating to people that their lives matter, that they have a value that’s intrinsic, that isn’t dependent upon the choices that they’ve made?’” he said.

Wallace acknowledged the humanity behind it, but said it’s getting out of hand. 

“People screaming, hitting poles. You never want to be in the way of it,” she said.

She said she hopes that new resources and a willingness to be housed will change this tide soon.