Long Beach, CA (December 11, 2023) – The Downtown Long Beach Alliance (DLBA) announced today that beginning this week, two new services will be delivered in the Downtown Long Beach (DTLB) area to enhance safety and better connect our unhoused neighbors with both local and county services.
Last week, Block by Block – the company contracted by DLBA to provide much of the clean and safe services in DTLB – began services with their new full-time homeless outreach coordinator position. This new position will interact regularly with unhoused residents, work with them to bridge services with the City’s Health and Human Services team and nonprofit service providers and record progress.
Additionally, DLBA has entered into a short-term contract with CSI Patrol Service Inc. (CSI), a security service provider that is also contracted to patrol areas in Bixby Knolls and in Belmont Shore. CSI will begin services today, Monday, Dec. 11, and the agreement is expected to sunset in 6 months.
“Our core mission at the Downtown Long Beach Alliance is to ensure a clean, safe and welcoming environment in Downtown,” said DLBA President and CEO Austin Metoyer. “While we aren’t in the business of providing security long-term, we do want to respond to what we are hearing from both our business community and residents. We believe that our long-term addition of adding a homeless outreach coordinator into our budget, and our short-term effort at providing enhanced security in core areas of the Downtown, will complement the work the City is doing to continue a strong Downtown recovery.”
Funding for the enhanced security efforts is made up of Long Beach Recovery Act reimbursements and one-time supportive funding from the City of Long Beach in line with the recently released Roadmap to Downtown Recovery.
The CSI team will patrol areas known as Pine and Promenade and key locations in the East Village. CSI patrol teams can be seen in different uniforms than the red-shirted clean and safe team, and will often be on bicycles throughout the day, though may also patrol on foot. For a brief FAQ and more information on DLBA’s clean and safe efforts, click here.
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About the Downtown Long Beach Alliance: DLBA is a non-profit, community-based organization whose mission is to cultivate, preserve and promote a healthy, safe, and prosperous Downtown for all. By balancing the interests of the residents, as well as businesses, the DLBA creates tangible progress by way of vested interest and solidified partnerships across local, municipal, and commercial lines. For additional information, visit www.downtownlongbeach.org, or follow on Facebook @downtownlongbeach, and on X (formerly Twitter) @dlba and Instagram @dlba.