Previous issues of the Signal Tribune can be found here.

Matt Sun/SignalTribune
Long Beach Police Department Lieutenant Braden Phillips (right) presents a report of the 2011 crime statistics to the Public Safety Committee in a meeting on Jan. 31 in the Long Beach City Council Chambers.

Stephanie Raygoza
Staff Writer

In a 2-1 vote, the Long Beach Public Safety Committee passed a motion on Jan. 31 to request the full Long Beach City Council to direct the city manager to prepare a multi-year police academy and recruitment plan to be presented to the Council at the beginning of the March discussion process. Fifth District Councilmember Gerrie Schispke, who voted against the move, referred to the motion as just another “feel-good thing” and not an action item.
The committee, which consists of chair and 1st District Councilmember Robert Garcia, 7th District Councilmember James Johnson and Schipske, conducted the meeting to provide constituents with a police department update and to discuss the status of a 2012 police academy and police staffing levels. Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) Administration Bureau Chief Braden Phillips presented a report on the 2011 crime statistics and the fiscal year 2012 agenda.

2011 crime summary
In his summary, Braden reported that crimes trended up last year but were still 15 percent lower than the 10-year averages. Last year’s statistics included the total summary of violent crimes and property crimes. An increase in robberies by 9.1 percent was reported, in part related to the price of gold. Additionally, a spike in residential and commercial burglaries was also reported.
Bike thefts were up by 22 percent, which were in part contributed to the City’s bike-friendly renovations and their increased popularity. Phillips said that, with police numbers on the decline, the department looked to various sources for force multipliers. He referenced a crime triangle to combat crime. “Each side represents a suspect, victim and a location,” Phillips said. “If you can eliminate one side, the crime does not occur.”
With the collaboration of city departments and the redevelopment agency, LBPD successfully eliminated various problem locations with histories of high numbers of calls for service and high incidences of crime. Those locations included the Willow Liquor Store, Pacific Coast Highway Liquor Store, El Paisano Bar, Locust Apartments, and several others.
Other force multipliers utilized by the LBPD included the expanding network of city cameras placed in critical locations and the development of a community watch in place of the neighborhood-watch programs.
“Divisional-support police officers and the community are coming together to expand the number of eyes and ears in our neighborhood,” Phillips said. “We have identified more than 50 partners from a variety of businesses who have agreed to share their security camera information under the community camera partnership.”

2012 police academy and agenda
LBPD made $9.39 million in general-fund cuts and eliminated more than 75 positions to meet its proportional share of the deficit-reduction target. With the onset of the 2013 budget process fast approaching, the department will turn its focus on how and when to fund the next recruitment academy. The projected fiscal year 2013 fund deficit is estimated to be around $14 million.
“There will be a number of other difficult resource allocation issues to deal with in the upcoming budget process, but the timing of the academy is among the most important for the department,” Phillips said.
Even if a decision is made in March to allocate funds for an academy, the traditional recruit academy was described as a lengthy process. The department would have to work with civil service to explore ways to use modern technology to conduct a recruiting. Funds would have to be set aside to train a new cadre of instructors due to a lapsed certification since the last academy. The total cost for a recruit academy would be $2.5 million, according to Phillips. The last police recruitment was conducted nearly four years ago and was put on hold because of budget constraints.
Lieutenant Steve James, who serves as president of the Long Beach Police Officers Association, voiced his concerns with the delay of a police recruit academy and the increase in crimes to come.
“I believe that property crime is a precursor for violent crime,” James said. “As staffing is going down, crime is going up. It’s not an exact science but certainly the untrained eye can see a correlation there. There is an academy need to maintain the level we’re at right now.”
Garcia also addressed concerns raised with the release of prisoners in future months. “There is no question that the release of prisoners into our communities will have an impact as far as what happens with those prisoners with the release and the ability to work with other public agencies to not just work on the public safety side, but on the service side,” he said.
While Schipske, James and other residents pressed the committee to make a final decision on allocating funds immediately, Johnson sided with Garcia’s motion to conceptualize a plan first. “I think the purpose of the motion is that we all want an academy,” Johnson said. “It’s only fiscally prudent that we make sure we have the money to pay those officers in the added academy.”
Schipske cited discrepancies in crime statistics given to her constituents weeks prior, an increase in home burglaries in her district and an alarming decline in police presence with the need to get a police academy going as soon as possible.
“The majority of the Council did a great disservice to the constituents by not restoring public safety funding when we had excess oil revenue available,” Schipske said. “It takes about three years to have an experienced officer on the streets. I don’t think we need to wait until March to ask the full Council to take up the issue of funding. I think we need to take some action because our residents are really getting upset when they hear that we don’t have enough police officers.”
Schipske also reported that her constituents have had to take the initiative to purchase home security alarms. She recommended that with the $5-million surplus reported at the end of the last budget year, the police department could fund an academy.
The meeting was closed with a second motion approved by all three councilmembers to ask the city manager to access areas of the city that could benefit from enhanced public lighting and to explore new technology that may allow additional lighting in an environmentally and fiscally responsible manner.

CJ Dablo/Signal Tribune
Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell

CJ Dablo
Staff Writer

His name won’t appear on the April 12 ballot, but that won’t stop Long Beach Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell from seeking a third term in office. Long Beach councilmembers and the mayor are limited to two terms in office unless constituents choose to re-elect their city official through a write-in vote.
O’Donnell touted his experience over the last eight years as the representative of Long Beach’s fourth district.
“Long Beach has a balanced budget because individuals like me have made the tough choices to move our City forward and secure a balanced budget,” O’Donnell said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
O’Donnell is one of several city officials in the last decade to attempt to hold on to the office for a third term via a write-in vote. Beverly O’Neill successfully won a third term when she ran for mayor in 2002. Other incumbent candidates who ran for re-election for City Council have not been so fortunate. Coucilmember Jackie Kell lost her campaign for Council in 2006. Tonia Reyes Uranga and Val Lerch each lost their elections for Council in 2010.
O’Neill remembers just how tough a write-in campaign can be. She also explained why she ran for a third term in the first place. The former mayor described how in her first two terms over eight years in office, Long Beach had been moving away from its identity as a defense town that used to have a naval shipyard, Navy station, Navy hospital and Navy housing.
“I felt that it was just not through,” O’Neill said, as she explained how she and others had set goals for the city’s transition and that there was still work to do. “Because we were known as a Navy town and we have an entirely different identity now. So when I ran, we realized that even though they [the constituents] knew me, they didn’t know how to vote for a write-in.”
O’Neill emphasized the timing of a campaign. She said she believes that her own 2002 campaign began around spring in the year prior to the election. She explained how it may be a risk for candidates to wait too long to announce a bid for office. He or she may discover that some of the people on whom they’ve depended could have already committed to supporting someone else. Potential endorsers may not have known that the candidate was going to run.
According to the city election handbook from the City Clerk’s office, the filing period for write-in candidates begins Feb. 13 and lasts until March 27.
O’Neill provided a clear message to the constituents in her campaign, which involved meetings and brochures to communicate how voters can fill out their ballots correctly. On the ballot, voters have to fill in the blank corresponding to the correct office, write in the candidate’s name and fill in the bubble next to candidate’s name. O’Neill described one way organizers creatively spread the word.
“We did send out a letter that had a small golf pencil in it that said ‘Write In Beverly O’Neill.’ I don’t think you can do that anymore,” the former mayor said, laughing.
The fourth district councilmember said he’s taking cues from prior candidates for office who tried to launch a write-in campaign.
“You can absolutely be assured that we’ll be creative, but the most basic thing you can do is get out and knock on doors and talk to voters on their doorstep,” O’Donnell said, indicating that he’s already started to visit with voters. He estimated he will knock on thousands of doors by the time the election is over.
He also emphasized his own priorities.
“This is about protecting the basics,” O’Donnell said. “We’re not in an era where we’re planning to spend large amounts of money on unique and new things. It’s about protecting public safety, our parks, repairing our streets and sidewalks and focusing on quality-of-life issues.”
O’Donnell will face opponents John Watkins and Daryl Supernaw, who months ago started work on their own campaigns to run for the fourth district Council seat. Watkins initially submitted paperwork in July of last year. Supernaw filed his candidate papers in September. At the time, they had understood that O’Donnell was running for the State Assembly. O’Donnell announced earlier in January that he intended to drop his bid to run for the Assembly. Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal last year announced that she would seek another term in the California Assembly instead of running for state senate.
O’Donnell didn’t cite Lowenthal’s decision to seek another term as the main reason for his own decision to run for Council again.
“I don’t apologize for taking a look at running for the State Assembly,” O’Donnell said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Ultimately, I didn’t do it for a variety of reasons, among them being the fact that I’ve got young children and traveling is hard on a family.”
O’Donnell may not be the only one running as a write-in candidate. Eighth District Councilmember Rae Gabelich is also finishing her second term on the Council this year. The councilmember was out of town this week. Gabelich was unable to respond directly to press inquiries that asked if she will also run for re-election as a write-in candidate for her Council seat. According to Jonathan Kraus, a spokesperson for Gabelich, the eighth district councilmember will be making an announcement next week.
With at least one candidate running a write-in campaign, are term limits a good idea for the City? O’Neill said she felt “ambivalent” about term limits.
“While I like the fact that term limits [bring] in new blood, I also know that term limits sometimes [limit] the seniority that people have and the feeling of history that they have in the cities,” O’Neill said. “So… I really didn’t feel as though I was defying the term limits as much as wanting to complete what had been started. And some of the people I was running against didn’t want to do some of these things.”
O’Donnell said he had to follow the will of the voters when it comes to term limits.
“Once something like this passed,” O’Donnell said, “it’s my job to follow the rules, not recreate them.”

Matt Sun/Signal Tribune

Robert “Bob” Lee, also known as “Mr. Long Beach Boulevard” in the Long Beach community, was memorialized on Jan. 31 with a bus bench dedication ceremony presented by the Central Project Area Committee (CPAC) and 6th District Councilmember Dee Andrews. Friends, family and city officials, including Signal Hill Councilmember Ellen Ward, representatives from the offices of the 6th and 7th districts of Long Beach and the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, and redevelopment agency (RDA) project officer Seyed Jalali were just a few of the many who attended the event that paid tribute to Lee’s numerous contributions to the city. The artwork, located on the northeast corner of Long Beach Boulevard and Willow Street, was funded through RDA and CPAC. Lee’s widow, Aurora, was also presented with a certificate of appreciation from Andrews. Lee, who passed away in 2008, served as a member of the Signal Hill Historical Society and the Central and Westside Redevelopment Project Area committees.

The RDA-funded Parkway Garden project at Carson Street and Atlantic Ave was the first of the BKBIA-scout undertakings

Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer

By now, most people have heard about how the end of redevelopment agencies (RDAs) will impact the state as a whole and the City of Long Beach, but not many people know that it will affect the programs and projects of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA).
Speaking from his office last Monday, BKBIA Executive Director Blair Cohn noted that the Long Beach RDA has been a vital part of the progress made in Bixby Knolls. “We have worked very closely with the RDA in the past three years and even before that,” he said.
Cohn explained that about three years ago, the RDA commissioned the HyettPalma consulting group to undertake a study, which included input from Bixby Knolls residents and business owners, to determine the needs and wishes of the community. “They came back and gave us a to-do list of things we could do to help businesses thrive here,” Cohn said, adding that some of the items on the list were things the BKBIA was already doing, like façade improvements and the recruiting of new businesses.
“We have been using the work list as a guide,” Cohn said, noting that soon after the Hyatt Palma study was complete, he asked the agency to channel the funding of some of the consulting group’s recommendations through the BKBIA. “We told the RDA that we could break it down into capital improvements, landscaping, clean and safe (including litter removal and the installation of more lights and security cameras) marketing, promotion and staff salary,” he explained.
The agency agreed to fund some of the projects recommended by HyettPalma, and soon thereafter, Cohn began approaching business and property owners offering to subsidize part of the cost of painting and other improvements to buildings, landscape improvements, graffiti removal and other things that would make the area more attractive to shoppers.
“With agency funding, we have been able to accomplish many things that bring more people to Bixby Knolls,” Cohn said. For example, we were able to have nine signs installed on the 405 Freeway directing people to Bixby Knolls; we’ve painted 23 buildings; we installed 18 new storefront signs; we did four major landscape projects with boy scouts using it for their Eagle Scout project; we did eight additional landscape projects; we planted 80 trees; we have removed etched graffiti from the windows of four businesses; we installed 50 Bixby Knolls logos at the intersections, and we have 35 more to do to brand the entire district.”
Cohn insisted that because of all those improvements, new businesses and new shoppers are coming to Bixby Knolls. Cohn acknowledged that, because of the lingering effects of the economic recession, many businesses in the area are still struggling and some have gone out of business, but he stressed that if not for the improvements and promotional events sponsored by the BKBIA, many more businesses would have closed their doors forever.
Cohn explained that when he first assumed the role of BKBIA executive director, he felt the organization had to do three things: reconnect the businesses and residents of Bixby Knolls, make the area more attractive, and recruit new businesses to fill the vacant buildings. He said that the Bixby Knolls Strollers, Literary Society book club and supper club have accomplished much toward reconnecting residents and businesses to each other, and these improvements have made the area much more attractive.
“We are just beginning to see a growing success in our business recruitment efforts,” Cohn added. “In the past three months, we have had nine new businesses relocate to Bixby Knolls.” He explained that seven of those are up and running and two expect to open soon.
“It’s taken us a long time to get this momentum going, and the last thing we should do now is quit doing what we have been doing,” Cohn said. “But the legislation which put an end to the RDAs threatens to grind almost everything we are doing to a halt.”
Cohn noted that last year, before the legislature passed the law abolishing all RDAs, BKBIA had signed a 10-year contract with the agency. The contract provides $200,000 per year to the BKBIA to pay for the various ongoing improvement projects, promotional events and business recruitment. A clause in that law abolishing RDAs allows for the funding of “enforceable obligations,” so it is possible that the contract with the BKBIA will be honored.
“If that is the case, wonderful, we will continue going full steam ahead on all the things we have been doing,” Cohn said. “But if the state decides that our contract is not an enforceable obligation, we will have to cut back our programs and our staff, and I will have to take a pay cut.”
According to Cohn, the assessment fees paid by business owners amount to $120,000 to $130,000 per year. “That allows us to keep the doors open and to do the bare minimum,” he said. “The RDA funds gave us the tools to make a significant impact and engage the business owners, property owners, residents, media and City Hall in a synergy that has moved Bixby Knolls forward even in a time of economic recession.”
Cohn continued. “The end of RDAs is a brutal process,” he said. “People are going to lose their jobs, and lots of good programs are going to disappear. We are just waiting to see if our contract will be honored, and we will take it from there.”
Cohn said he and the BKBIA board of directors are discussing options for raising funds, but so far no concrete plans have surfaced. “There is a fear that if the City sells off RDA properties, undesirable businesses will once again establish themselves in the area,” Cohn said. He added that at this point he is not worried about losing use of the Expo building, which the BKBIA uses as an arts and culture center and to host various events. “Anybody who bought it would have to demolish it and build something else, and I don’t think in these economic times and I don’t think in these economic times that someone would be willing to do that,” he said.
The BKBIA has a lease on the building through May, and Cohn said he believes the City will continue to allow the BKBIA to use the building thereafter.
A recently proposed bill that would have allowed RDAs throughout the state to remain intact until April was voted down by the legislature. The agencies officially went out of existence on Feb. 1.

The first statewide Report of Registration since new decennial legislative and congressional maps were drawn shows that more than 17 million Californians are registered to vote, up from 15.5 million four years ago.
“The new report shows 21.2 percent of California voters have no political party preference, a new all-time high,” said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, the state’s chief elections officer. “The percentage of voters who have no party preference (NPP)– previously known as decline-to-state voters– has steadily increased in recent years. The previous record high of unaffiliated voters was 20.4 percent of all registered voters, reported in March 2011.”
The Report of Registration includes data gathered 154 days before the June 5 Presidential Primary Election and reflects updates to voter registration rolls in California’s 58 counties, including the removal of registrants who have passed away, moved out of state, or have been determined to be ineligible to vote, as well as the addition of new registrants.
The complete report, which includes voter registration data for a variety of political subdivisions, is on the Secretary of State’s website at sos.ca.gov/elections.
Registering to vote is easier than ever, thanks to the Secretary of State’s fillable form available online at sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform, which just needs to be printed, signed and mailed. (The form is also pre-addressed to the registrant’s county elections office.) Californians can also pick up a voter registration form at any U.S. post office, public library or county elections office. Voters can check their registration status through a portal at sos.ca.gov/elections/registration-status.
The last day to register to vote in the June 5 primary election is May 21. The last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot is May 29.
California law requires statewide voter registration data updates 154, 60 and 15 days before each primary election, and 60 and 15 days before each general election. There is one “off-year” update released in February of years with no regularly scheduled statewide election.

The pink and red bucks and decorated boxes at participating businesses serve as receptacles for the Sweetheart Sweepstakes.

by Neena Strichart

With Groundhog Day behind us, it is now time to gear up for Valentine’s Day. With that said, I want to announce that today is the kick-off for our 17th annual Sweetheart Sweepstakes. With this promotion, our readers cut out entry coupons that appear during the next two weeks in the Signal Tribune and take them to any or all of the 24 participating advertisers to enter the drawings for our fantastic prize packages. Check out pages 10 and 11 for entry coupons, rules and prize list.
This year’s prizes are pretty amazing, and I find it heartwarming that so many local businesses chose to participate by donating such generous items. I still can’t believe we were able to put together such a fine array of prizes.
This year’s entry forms will be published today and next Friday. The last chance to enter will be Tuesday, Feb. 14– Valentine’s Day– at noon. After that time, our staff members will pick up all the entry boxes. Once we have them in our hot little hands, we will count the entries, mix ‘em up, draw the winners and then contact those lucky folks by telephone. The winners’ names will appear in our Feb. 17 issue.
The point of the Sweetheart Sweepstakes is to encourage our readers to patronize local businesses. Cutting out and then dropping off the coupons in the specially marked boxes, or pink or red buckets, at participating businesses gives our readers an opportunity to visit the participating advertisers and familiarize themselves with those merchants’ goods or services. Our intention is to give our readers a fun reason to visit some local shops or restaurants they’ve missed out on in the past.
Please don’t just run in and throw your entry into the box. Do take the time to look around and shop or dine at the establishment that so graciously helped sponsor the sweepstakes. Who knows? You may just discover your new favorite shop or restaurant!
Keep in mind there are rules– you cannot enter by mail, fax or email; and don’t just drop your entry through the mail slot– it will be thrown away. You must go inside the business and drop your entry blank into the specially marked box or bucket.
Also, you may only enter once a day at each business. Do remember to put the right coupon in the right box, or you’ll be disqualified!
A big “thanks” goes out to all the folks who so generously donated for our contest. We appreciate your participation. Many of you have donated for all 16 years– you’re the greatest!
So, my dear readers, with a total of 12 prize packages in all, the odds are in your favor…so enter, and enter often. If you don’t enter, you can’t win!
Note: To Mother, my husband Steve and staff of the Signal Tribune…..NO! For the 17th time– you cannot enter, so stop asking!

I am disappointed with CJ Dablo’s article about the Signal Hill Library presentation at the Parks & Recreation Committee on Jan 25. To a reader who had not known much before about the proposed new library, it might appear that this was the first time information was presented to the public.
Meetings and workshops have been posted to invite interested residents to attend. I was a member of the 10-member advisory committee, [composed] of city officials, community services staff, as well as local citizens who had answered the public invitation to become involved. This committee volunteered many hours over several months, learning about the plans, visiting similar facilities, and working toward helping provide a well-informed presentation for Planning and Parks & Recreation Commissions (of which I am a Commissioner), the City Council and interested residents.
The community needs assessment of 2008-9 surveyed several hundred local residents regarding their opinions on current and future recreation uses in Signal Hill. Their first listed priority– a library.
When reporting public comments, the term “concerns were voiced” was repeatedly written. The reader may form the impression many people share these views which were stated by one person. Making inflammatory statements without substantial backup is misleading and nonproductive to the discussion.
These questions and concerns were addressed by the architect and city staff, though few [were] quoted.
“Concerns (by one person) were raised” that children are in the library so close to homeless people in the library. An inference does not make it a fact. The staff responded that the library staff serves a diverse cross-section of the community. That doesn’t mean people who appear to be drifters and panhandlers are welcome to use the library as a haven. As a resident and frequent library patron, I have never observed anyone fitting the description of the chronic homeless person loitering in the library.
The architect has provided a blueprint for a visitor-friendly building that salutes the history of Signal Hill as well as recognizing the changing nature of “libraries” now and in the future. It is planned to be a LEED Silver Certified structure for energy efficiency.As one person stated, this facility could become the heart of the Signal Hill civic center, serving the needs and interests of citizens of all ages.
There is still one more opportunity for public participation and information– the Feb. 7 City Council meeting at 7pm.

Louise Cunningham
Signal Hill

Vexation about representation

I want to give some credit to our former seventh district council Representative, Tonia [Reyes] Uranga, for the attention she gave her constituents when they called her office for help with a problem. I realize now that she went out of her way to have one of her office staff take the time to visit the person who called her to see if she could help them in some way.
That is certainly not the case with our current representative. I have called his office twice, and both times I was told he couldn’t help. The last time I called was in reference to the red paint I had paid the City to apply to either side of my driveway because, not only am I a senior citizen who has lived in my house since it was built, but my driveway is narrow due to a sewer easement on the north side of my house. When large vehicles are parked on either side of my driveway, it is impossible for me to see oncoming traffic. The paint is starting to fade, and I thought the City should repaint the area so it could be better seen by anyone wanting to park there.
When I called Mr. Johnson’s office, the current representative for my district, I was told by someone in the office that the City had no money for that. After I hung up the phone, I thought about the dog park Mr. Johnson was so proud to brag about, and I wondered how he got the money to install that in my district. Probably 90 percent of the people living in this district have large back yards that could accommodate the needs of a pet, and the streets and other things could certainly benefit from a bit of fixing more than a dog park. I am a dog owner, so I know what dogs need, and I drive a car, so I know what streets need.
To be honest, I think we need to go back to the time we had City Council representatives who were really interested in doing the best they could for their district. What we have now is a bunch of seekers of “bigger and better” using the first rung of the success ladder to get to their destination by serving on the City Council. We all know the ultimate goal of most of them is higher office with the county, state or federal government.
How sad that our beautiful Long Beach has been used and abused to the point of no return. Give me back “Iowa by the Sea.” When I arrived here in 1943, I wrote to my mother and told her how beautiful and clean Long Beach was. I said, “You can eat off the streets they are so clean.” Now we have scam artists who approach you in the market parking lots and ask for money to get home for one reason or another. (As happened to me, they have a sad story and “promise to pay you back,” and even though you know you are being scammed you can’t be certain so you give them enough money for gas or whatever.)
Anyhow, thank you, Tonia, for your help and understanding of the needs the people you were serving in the seventh district needed a representative for. You did the job well.

Vivian C. Nelson
Long Beach

Greg McCormack is the site director for the United States Veterans Initiative facility in Long Beach, which provides housing and services to more than 550 veterans each night.

Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer

Military veterans dealing with joblessness, hunger, substance abuse and even homelessness have a place to which they can turn in Long Beach. It’s the U.S. Vets center, which is located at the Villages at Cabrillo Housing.
“Our mission is to provide assistance to any struggling veterans. We are here to help them in any way we can,” said Greg McCormack, site director for the U.S. Vets facility in Long Beach. He explained that the help comes in the form of housing, employment assistance, case management and counseling that helps the men and women deal with issues that are plaguing them.
U.S. Vets, a nonprofit organization, was founded 18 years ago in Inglewood, and it has operated the facility in Villages at Cabrillo for about 12 years. The organization maintains 12 similar centers across the United States.
“We provide programs to veterans who are homeless or who are at risk of homelessness,” McCormack noted. “The programs are at no cost to them and fully supported by our organization.”
He explained that U.S. Vets gives struggling veterans a free place to live in dormitory housing, meals, clothing, and other forms of assistance to help them get back on their feet. “Once a veteran goes through our program and establishes an income either by work or veterans benefits or disability income, then they have the opportunity to stay here at Villages at Cabrillo,” McCormack said. “They would continue to live here but on their own by renting a room in our transitional and supportive housing.” That usually means having their own bedroom in a house shared with other vets.
According to McCormack, one of the requirements for staying in the transitional housing is that the vets maintain a clean and sober lifestyle. “That requirement really helps those vets who want to stay away from drug and/or alcohol abuse but are having a hard time doing that on their own,” he said, explaining that staying drug- and alcohol-free for a long period of time is key to stabilizing the vets so that later they won’t be drawn back into a self-destructive lifestyle.
Many veterans come to U.S. Vets with nothing but backpacks on their backs. “They have exhausted all their resources and are ready to make a change,” McCormack said. “We can get them right into stable housing, and that alone is a major step toward overcoming obstacles and achieving goals.”
McCormack explained that the U.S. Vets assistance is available to veterans who are homeless or at risk for being homeless. The organization has two specialized entry programs for vets when they are first accepted into the facility.
“We have a work re-entry program called Veterans in Progress, or VIP. It’s for male veterans who want to go back to work,” McCormack said. “Every year, we put close to a hundred veterans back into full-time employment through that program.”
He explained that VIP staff look at a veterans’ work history and skill sets, and then they map out a strategy that will make them employable. Sometimes that includes enrolling them in a vocational school. According to McCormack, the VIP program gives up to 75 men a place to live during their job training.
“U.S. Vets also has the Advanced Women’s Program for female veterans. It is one of the largest programs for homeless female veterans in the country,” McCormack said. He explained that the program provides housing and other assistance to 30 women who move into other U.S. Vets programs after they become more stable.
Another program is called the Social Independent Living Skills (SILS) program. It provides guidance and assistance to disabled veterans. “We have 32 beds available in SILS, and it’s primarily for older, disabled veterans who have a pension or disability income but have great difficulty establishing consistent housing,” McCormack said, adding that after a transitional period, U.S. Vets helps them get into affordable housing.
McCormack noted that another program started about three years ago aims at helping younger veterans whose issues and barriers are different than those of older veterans. “We opened the program specifically for the veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who have symptoms of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” McCormack said. “We currently have about 20 veterans in that program, but we believe we are going to be seeing an increasing need to help vets with those symptoms in the coming years.”
The Long Beach U.S Vets center is located at 2001 River Ave. For more information, go to usvetsinc.org or call (562) 388-7800.

In the upcoming weeks, the Signal Tribune will be running a series of articles detailing some of the local U.S. Vets programs.