Sixteen people living unsheltered along the Los Angeles River in Long Beach moved into safe interim housing through Los Angeles County’s latest Pathway Home encampment resolution, where they can receive supportive services and other resources to support their transition out of homelessness and into permanent housing. Most moved on October 15 and 16, and two more people got motel rooms the following week. The move was undertaken by Los Angeles County’s Pathway Home team, the city of Long Beach, LAHSA, the nonprofit service organization, PATH, and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.
“We have been working for months on this,” said Shaonnie Corella, an outreach coordinator with the city of Long Beach. Unhoused individuals had been living near the river, some under the Anaheim Street, Shoemaker, and Ocean Boulevard bridges. Some were living in RVs. “A lot are already downsizing,” said Corella the day before the encampment resolution, noting that people had begun paring down their belongings in anticipation of a move.
Melissa with her two dogs, Hank and Chip
“We’ve beenready to go,” said Melissa, 41, who was moving with her partner, Carlos, 46. They have two dogs, Hank and Chip, but Melissa is still heartbroken over the loss of her dog, Delilah, who disappeared nearly three months ago. They lived under a bridge, sometimes leaving for an errand and coming back to find that their belongings were gone.
As they got ready to leave, she hoped for a bathtub in the motel room and talked about going back to school. “I can’t really decide between cosmetology or auto mechanics. Maybe I should do both. Then I can have a mechanics shop where you can get your hair done while your car’s getting fixed,” she said with a laugh.
Her partner, Carlos, struggled after losing jobs. He has worked in construction, at a hotel front desk, and as a sous chef in recent years, he said. “I lost everything else—housing, car, little by little.”
But the move off the streets and into interim housing offers hope. “It’s a new chapter,” he said. “The beginning of a new life.”
When the van carrying the couple, their dogs, bikes, and other belongings reached the motel, the door slid open and Tim Huxford, associate director of interim housing at PATH, greeted the canines. “Who are these babies!” he exclaimed as he helped dogs and people out.
“We want them to feel like they’re coming home—not to a shelter,” Huxford said later of all the new arrivals.
And the goal of the Pathway Home program is ultimately to connect people with permanent housing.
Pamela poses with her cat in her motel room.
Pamela, 50, arrived with her cats. She has lived a number of places, from a hotel room to parks—“I probably got kicked out of every park in Long Beach”—to a spot under a bridge. She said she does volunteer work with animals. “If I had a farm, I would rescue them all.” She was ready for a new life and a motel room—and she, too, coveted a bathtub. “I don’t like a stand-up shower—reminds me of a phone booth,” she said.
Marissa, 45, arrived with her dogs—including a furry brown five-week-old puppy who had everyone at the motel clustered around, cooing over him as he yawned. Marissa had moved back and forth to spots under a bridge. “I was homeless about three years,” she said. “I just lost everything. I lost my job.” And since she’s been surviving outside, she sometimes lost her belongings in clean-ups. “I’m tired of them taking my stuff.”
Laura Denney, PATH case manager, poses with a puppy at a Long Beach interim housing site
Lauren Denney, a PATH case manager, works with residents at one of the motels being used for interim housing. Despite the amenities at the motels, moving inside can have its challenges for people who have been through emotional upheaval. “There are all kinds of trauma with being inside as well as outside,” said Denney. But case managers, like Denney, are there to guide them—as are mental health professionals from the Department of Mental Health who are available onsite at various times.
“We have a whole team that helps them,” she said.
Melissa, who used drugs but stopped six months ago she said, wrote a poem that she relies on for inspiration. She memorized it. It starts with a dream of her being dead in a coffin:
“…Why does everyone look so down and just keep walking by? What do they mean I died because I wouldn’t stop getting high?”
It goes on: “I bolt upright in bed as I awaken with a start. It was all a dream, I think with the pounding of my heart. I must change my ways or this will be a dream fulfilled. Those bridges that I burned I must begin to rebuild. I’m still here and I’m not yet lost. But if I don’t stop getting high, my life will be the final cost.”
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This operation was the 67th overall Pathway Home encampment resolution since the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative launched the program in August 2023. More than 1,800 Los Angeles County residents have come off the streets through Pathway Home. Of those, more than 400 are now permanently housed. These operations have also removed more than 1,000 RVs from the streets.