Dear Honorable Mayor, City Council Members, and City Manager

Long Beach city leaders have the responsibility to protect the people who make our communities thrive by fully funding programs that keep families safe, together, and housed.

As a coalition of organizations who work with and hear from a diverse tapestry of residents of our city, we call on the Long Beach City Council and Mayor Rex Richardson to make critical investments in the city budget, including:

• Investing $3 million in new city dollars to the Long Beach Justice Fund, to ensure families have access to legal support and can remain together against the Trump administration’s deportation machine;

• Allocating $2.2 million in County Measure A funding to expand the Tenants’ Right to Counsel program to help families stay in their homes and fight unjust evictions; and

• Allocating $200,000 in County Measure A capacity building funds for the Long Beach Community Land Trust to build community-owned affordable housing.
  

Families in Long Beach are threatened by a multitude of issues.

As a majority-renter city, Long Beach has long been deeply impacted by the ongoing housing crisis. Tenants in our communities are burdened by rising cost of living, harassment, and fear of retaliation. Many of our undocumented neighbors are often excluded from federal support programs, and they fear their legal status limits their rights.

At the same time, the Trump administration’s ongoing mass deportation campaign has destabilized families and continues to leave many of our neighbors without work, afraid to leave their homes, and facing the impossible choice of risking family separation or doing what they can to keep a roof over their heads.

These problems are not going away, but Long Beach can take action to protect our city’s people and create a safer community for everyone who calls this city home.

Strengthening Community Safety and Stability by Investing in Legal Support Through the Justice Fund

Invest $3 million in structural funding to the city-run Long Beach Justice Fund (“LBJF”) program to protect our community from family separation.

Long Beach is home to tens of thousands of immigrants, many of whom have been heavily impacted by family separation and economic instability. We know that having legal representation increases the chances of a family winning a deportation case, yet the government does not provide a lawyer in these cases. Because of this, the LBJF is a vital resource for immigrant families to receive legal support as they navigate through the immigration system. This support is crucial to both non-detained and detained folks in deportation proceedings for being able to remain with their families.

Many community members have been referred to assistance through the Justice Fund by the Filipino Migrant Center, ÓRALE, and the United Cambodian Community, the three organizations recognized by the City as Community Connectors. From there, they have been provided legal consultations, potential legal representation, and pro se support from city-contracted legal service providers. The Justice Fund has a proven track record of protecting the City’s immigrant community from violent, family-separating deportations and helping community members apply for immigration relief, providing paths to citizenship.

A $3 million investment will expand capacity for legal representation from the city-contracted legal service providers. This will ensure that more Long Beach community members have access to immigration attorneys, increase opportunities to hold workshops and presentations for pro se assistance, and provide Community Connectors with the resources essential to connecting our immigrant community to the LBJF. With this investment, the City helps keep families together.

Expanding Housing Stability Through the Tenant Right to Counsel Program

Allocate $2.2 million in County Measure A funding to expand the Tenant Right to Counsel program and connect tenants to eviction defense.

Since 2022, the City of Long Beach has invested in protecting renters from eviction and displacement through the Tenant Right to Counsel program. Tenant Right to Counsel has served as a lifeline for families facing eviction and housing instability by connecting them to free legal representation and tenant navigation.

Since 2021, the program has provided full legal representation to 521 tenants and legal guidance to 1,747 tenants. In addition, the program has educated over 900 community members about their rights, facilitated 88 tenant workshops, and provided direct support on almost 9,000 inquiries. As eviction rates continue to rise, these services are an essential resource for low-income renters.

In 2024, Los Angeles County voters approved Measure A, creating a dedicated funding source for homelessness prevention and housing stability. The City should use these funds to strengthen existing, proven programs that keep families housed. We’re asking the City to allocate $2.2 million in County Measure A funding to expand the Tenants’ Right to Counsel program. The additional funds will ensure tenants have access to settlement assistance to prevent financial barriers from limiting successful legal outcomes.

Advance Affordable Housing through Community-Led Models

Allocate $200,000 in County Measure A capacity building funds toward the Long Beach Community Land Trust to support permanently affordable, community-owned housing.

Housing costs are a major driver of Long Beach’s high cost of living. It is essential that the City expand access to affordable housing options to keep families safe from threats of displacement. Community-led, innovative-housing models, like the Long Beach Community Land Trust (LBCLT) create permanent housing affordability, prevent displacement, and reinforce housing as a human right for all.

With the City’s support, Long Beach’s first CLT was able to build capacity and speed up the readiness phase, and today has over 120 members, a strong member-elected Board stewarding the process, and a growing pipeline of affordable homes for future residents. As LBCLT continues to move permanently affordable housing opportunities forward, we are requesting $200,000 in capacity building support from County Measure A’s Production, Preservation, and Ownership (PPO) funds. This funding will maintain momentum for the critical anti-displacement and community ownership work of the CLT and ensure that our city is able to leverage millions of dollars of additional external funds becoming available for innovative affordable housing solutions like CLTs.

Why Does This Matter?

With the constantly shifting political and economic climate, the need to prioritize stability and safety in Long Beach has never been more urgent. We call on the City of Long Beach to take action towards creating a budget that protects our communities by expanding access to legal representation and investing into affordable housing models while also committing to not using any local resources for mass deportations.