After months of fear about dwindling federal funding for a pandemic-era housing assistance program, Long Beach housing officials say they have secured enough money to keep nearly 500 households from potentially falling back into homelessness.
The last-minute announcement saves the city from what would have been the worst-case scenario: having to kick hundreds of formerly homeless people off of federal housing assistance. The situation illustrates just how dependent Long Beach’s homelessness and health services are on state and federal funding, which has stagnated or been cut in recent years.
Long Beach officials thought they would run out of money to pay rental subsidies for the 480 households currently on Emergency Housing Vouchers as early as this month, but they now say they have the time — and money — to transition all of those households to other rental assistance programs by November.
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An estimated $480,000 increase in federal funding for Long Beach, cost-saving measures and help from a neighboring housing authority made that possible, according to a city memo…