Eight months since it was supposed to open, Long Beach’s new youth homeless shelter is still empty, plagued by plumbing problems and a long-running legal conflict that’s just now being made public. The nonprofit originally selected to run the shelter says it’s on the verge of suing the city for pulling the plug on its contract and withholding hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments that have left it on the brink of collapse.
It’s a dispute that has been unfolding for nearly a year, between the city and the nonprofit April Parker Foundation. But at the shelter’s premature grand opening in August, all seemed well.
Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson cut the ceremonial ribbon in front of a small crowd, including about 30 foundation employees…