Long Beach is turning the 60-bed Colonial Motel on Pacific Coast Highway into a temporary landing spot for people living along the Los Angeles River, moving dozens of unhoused residents off the riverbank while outreach teams connect them to services and longer-term housing. City officials say the motel stays are meant to be short-term waystations where people can get case management, drug-treatment referrals, and job training while the city works on securing more permanent homes.
The city has signed a roughly $1.7 million, one-year agreement that covers rooms for up to 60 people at a time and includes use of the motel’s parking lot, according to the City of Long Beach. The deal runs through next year and is designed to let outreach teams place people quickly, instead of piecing together vouchers and scattered shelter beds across the city.
Health department officials told the Long Beach Post that 13 people had already moved into the Colonial as of Wednesday, with another 20 expected by the end of the week, and that the department plans to fill all rooms by the end of the month. The lease is part of a two-year, $17.4 million push, including an $11 million state grant, to begin housing roughly 250 people along the 9.5-mile stretch of the L.A. River that runs inside city limits.
Why the Colonial?
“Because the Colonial Motel was already in use for a similar program, the City can provide placements and services quickly,” a city health spokesperson said, as reported by Long Beach Post. City officials say they scrapped a planned 18-month lease of a 50-room Motel 6 after community pushback and worries about losing a local asset. On top of that, the Colonial penciled out cheaper, at about $85 per room per day, compared with the Motel 6’s projected nightly rate of $131 to $177.
Past Results and the Capacity Squeeze
City dashboards show shelter space is typically near capacity, about 93 percent occupied, and that 99 percent of emergency housing vouchers are in use, which puts pressure on officials to find additional interim sites, according to the City of Long Beach. City officials note that more than 4,260 people were moved into interim or permanent housing in 2025, though outreach teams warn that new inflows still outpace exits to stable housing…