1 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:59 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Jimmy Ecklund <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 9:50 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 2 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
3 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Jimmy
California
4 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:59 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Gary Holloway <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 9:56 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 5 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
6 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Gary
California
7 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:59 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Abel Alvarez Rosales <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:06 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 8 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
9 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Abel
California
10 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:59 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: jaclyn a <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:08 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 11 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
12 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach jaclyn
California
13 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:59 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Kathleen Kohl <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:08 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 14 I, a district 3 resident, and we, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
15 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Kohl, District 3
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Kathleen
California
16 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:59 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Sandra Grigoletti <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:42 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 17 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
18 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Sandra
California
19 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:59 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Julio Sandino <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:48 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 20 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
21 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Julio
California
22 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:58 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Katelyn Bernardo <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:48 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 23 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
24 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Katelyn
California
25 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:58 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Esther Sims <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:48 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 26 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
27 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Esther
California
28 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:58 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Aidan Warnke <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:49 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 29 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
30 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Aidan
California
31 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:58 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Eric D'Asto <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:50 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 32 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
33 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Eric
California
34 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:58 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Leanna Noble <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 11:00 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 35 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
36 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Leanna
California
37 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:58 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Layne Zolninger <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 11:35 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 38 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
39 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Layne
California
40 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:58 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Michael Gearin <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 11:51 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 41 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
42 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Michael
California
43 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:58 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Dusty Coupwood <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 12:02 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 44 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
45 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Dusty
California
46 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:57 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Conor Harris <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 12:04 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 47 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
48 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Conor
California
49 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:57 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Yeshi Lemma <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 12:48 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 50 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
51 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Yeshi
California
52 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:57 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Zach Erickson <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 12:50 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 53 In light of recent severe weather, we urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
54 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Zach
California
55 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:57 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: dennis kortheuer <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 12:56 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City 56 Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, It is beyond my comprehension why the city continues to perform these so-called sweeps which disrupt the lives of the people living along the river banks when there is nowhere else for them to go and they wind up just having to return there afterwards and after having lost the bulk of their few precious possessions.
Before sweeping people up like they are trash we must create housing for them, establish a well-staffed and funded service system to take care of their needs including mental health care but also simple things like getting food and other necessities, making sure children can get to school, any other assistance elderly and disabled people living without homes may need.
"Sweeping" them away (what an ugly term, it sounds like something one does with a broom and trash) obviously solves nothing and is obscene and a condemnation of our community and all of us who live here and allow this to go on.
We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they 57 indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach dennis
California
58 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:57 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Kailee Caruso <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 1:53 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 59 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
60 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Kailee
California
61 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:57 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Scott Volz <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 1:57 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 62 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
63 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Scott
California
64 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:57 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Phyllis Schmidt <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 2:40 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 65 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
66 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Phyllis
California
67 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:56 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Lyn Almustafa <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 3:39 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 68 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
69 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Lyn
California
70 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:56 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Helene Hoffman <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:35 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 71 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
72 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Helene
California
73 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:56 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Carrissa Cochrane <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 2:33 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 74 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
75 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Carrissa
California
76 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:56 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 2:48 PM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 77 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
78 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach California
79 Alma Valenzuela
From: CityAttorney
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:56 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: FW: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Alice Stevens <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2023 9:50 AM
To: CityAttorney <[email protected]>
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council, 80 We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
81 Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Alice
California
82 Alma Valenzuela
From: Barbara Gallagher
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:55 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela; Kathy Apacible; Allison Bunma
Subject: RE: Hurricane Stop the Sweep - Public Comment
Good morning,
I’ll go ahead and forward them to you individually.
Thank you.
Barbara Gallagher
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Departmental Counsel Division
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2269 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Alma Valenzuela <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:54 AM
To: Kathy Apacible <[email protected]>; Allison Bunma <[email protected]> Cc: Barbara Gallagher <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Hurricane Stop the Sweep ‐ Public Comment
Hi Kathy,
Are you able to forward to me the public comment emails individually? Thank you.
Regards,
Alma Valenzuela
Executive Assistant to the City Clerk/PPA
83 Office of the City Clerk
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 11th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562-570-6765 | Fax: 562-570-6789
From: Kathy Apacible <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2023 4:35 PM
To: Allison Bunma <[email protected]>; Alma Valenzuela <[email protected]> Cc: Barbara Gallagher <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Hurricane Stop the Sweep ‐ Public Comment
This is the last bunch.
Thank you,
Kathy Apacible
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Executive Office
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2216 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
From: Kathy Apacible
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2023 4:32 PM
To: Allison Bunma <[email protected]>; Alma Valenzuela <[email protected]> Cc: Dawn McIntosh <[email protected]>; Barbara Gallagher <[email protected]> Subject: Hurricane Stop the Sweep ‐ Public Comment
Hi Allison and Alma,
Our office received multiple emails from ActionNetwork.Org namely from the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach, Chapter re’ the sweep of unhoused encampments in CD‐1 and 7 scheduled for August 22
nd. All of the emails have the same comments. I will send them to you in batches. 84 Kathy Apacible
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Executive Office
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2216 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
85 Alma Valenzuela
From: Kathy Apacible
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:54 AM
To: Alma Valenzuela
Subject: Automatic reply: Hurricane Stop the Sweep - Public Comment I am currently out of the office. I will be returning Wednesday, August 23, 2023. If you require immediate assistance, please email Barbara Gallagher at [email protected].
Thank you,
Kathy Apacible
Executive Assistant
Office of the City Attorney | Executive Office
411 W. Ocean Blvd., 9th Floor | Long Beach, CA 90802
Office: 562.570.2216 | Fax: 562.436.1579
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This email message and its attachments contain work product or other information which is privileged, confidential and/or protected from disclosure. THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHMENT, IF ANY, ARE NOT PUBLIC RECORDS (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTIONS 7927.705 and 7922.000). The information is intended only
for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you think that you have received this message in error, please e-mail or phone the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited.
86 Alma Valenzuela
From: Scott Volz <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 1:57 PM
To: CityAttorney
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council,
We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid 87 survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Scott
California
88 Alma Valenzuela
From: Carrissa Cochrane <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2023 2:33 PM
To: CityAttorney
Subject: Hurricane Warning: STOP the Sweep!
‐EXTERNAL‐
City Attorney Dawn McIntosh,
Dear Mayor Richardson, Supervisor Hahn, City Manager Modica, City Attorney McIntosh, Homeless Services Officer Duncan, Health and Human Services Director Colopy, Deputy City Manager Chandler, Public Works Director Lopez, Community Relations Officer Contreras, Public Works Director Pestrella, and Long Beach City Council,
We, the Housing Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Chapter, urgently write to demand that you abort the sweep of unhoused encampments along the Los Angeles River in Districts 1 and 7 scheduled for August 22, 2023. This sweep is planned to come on the heels of the powerful Hurricane Hilary, which will already displace and endanger hundreds of people, including seniors, families, and people with disabilities, who survive amid desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters on the riverbed. As the city officials named above very well know, there is presently a shortage of shelter beds relative to the size of the unhoused population in Long Beach. To sweep the encampments without offering replacement shelter after this extreme weather event is an unconscionable act of cruelty that will accomplish nothing short of inflicting harm on our unhoused neighbors.
To be clear, sweeps are ineffective, violent, and counterproductive, exacerbating the underlying issues that create barriers to obtaining housing. The communities of unhoused neighbors that have gathered in peripheral spaces like the concrete-encased riverbed are without dignified shelter, medical care, and safe and stable food sources. They are already exposed on a daily basis to climate change-related weather conditions, such as extreme heat and heavy rainfall, which greatly increases the risk of experiencing heat stroke, hypothermia, and other potentially fatal heat- and cold-related illnesses. As studies routinely demonstrate and unhoused individuals repeatedly express, sweeps worsen these conditions because they indiscriminately destroy, or otherwise result in the loss of, material possessions that aid 89 survival including personal identification, work uniforms, medical items, and other belongings.
This extends to tents, tarps, pallets (used to raise tents and keep them dry), sleeping bags, warm weather clothes, mobility aids, and so on.
Furthermore, many of our unhoused neighbors are currently in need of long-term medical care. But not only is Long Beach’s sole existing Multi-Service Center located out of the way and hard to access for those with limited to no mobility, or who are denied access for other reasons, it does not provide the ongoing forms of care that are urgently needed. The sweep will further disconnect our unhoused neighbors from health services and make it even more difficult to improve their living conditions. Likewise, the displacement from current, makeshift dwellings will exacerbate the mental and physical health crises that many are experiencing and coping with on a daily basis. The everyday stress and trauma caused by living without reliable or secure housing will exponentially increase once their dwellings are destroyed and they are forced—again—to start over.
Housing is a human right. The unhoused neighbors, friends, and community members who survive against the odds on the riverbed have a right to dignified shelter that protects them from the worsening ravages of climate change. Sweeps, now or in the future, will not remedy the problems faced by our unhoused neighbors. They will intensify them.
For these reasons, it is a dire ethical responsibility to cancel, and not reschedule, the sweep planned for August 22, 2023.
Sincerely,
Housing Justice Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach Carrissa
California
Public Comment Correspondence – Michael William
From: Michael William <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2023 10:19 PM
To: CityClerk <[email protected]>
Subject: Fyi
-EXTERNAL-
TO:Tom Modica ( city manager)
stop hate
www.sites.google.com/view/39d