Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and Signal Hill with 30,000 issues every Friday
VOL. XLI NO. 29
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
www.signaltribune.com
July 12, 2019
In this issue NEWS
Police seek sexual assault suspect
Security footage shows alleged suspect fleeing the scene, police say Page 6
COMMUNITY Courtesy LAHSA A slide from a Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) presentation during the July 9 Signal Hill City Council meeting showing increasing numbers of homeless housed since 2014. LAHSA shared during the meeting that the number of homeless in Los Angeles County grew by 12 percent between 2018 and 2019.
Signal Hill City Council learns about increased area homelessness During council meeting, LAHSA, PATH and the SH Police Department describe combating homelessness. Anita W. Harris
Baby chicks
LB aquarium announces five new baby avocet birds Page 8
Youth robotics
LB group will sponsor Chinese and local students for robotics competition Page 3
Staff Writer
The Signal Hill City Council devoted much of its July 9 meeting to hearing about how area homelessness has increased by 12% over the past year and what county authorities and local police are doing about it. It also addressed other council business and heard a presentation by Pete’s Plumbing during its “Small Business Spotlight.”
Increased homelessness To address the latest results from the 2019 homeless count conducted in January, Signal Hill Police Chief Christopher Nunley introduced representatives from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) and Signal Hill Senior Police Officer Don Moreau– the department’s homeless liaison officer and mental-evaluation team supervisor.
Elizabeth Hager from LAHSA said that the January 2019 homeless count results released last month show a 12% increase in the number of Los Angeles County homeless since last year. She said that city-level numbers are still being checked for accuracy and will be released in a couple of weeks. For the county, she said that though the number of homeless veterans decreased slightly by 8 people to 3,874, the number
of homeless families increased by almost 7% to 8,799; chronic homelessness increased by 17% to 16,529; homeless youth increased by 24% to 3,926; and homeless seniors increased by 8% to 5,225. Despite these increases, Hager noted that LAHSA housed 21,631 individuals and families in 2018– 23% more than in the previous year. Housing placements have see SH page 15
LB Council moves forward with considering Billie Jean King as eponym of new main library Council also calls for special election to fill vacant 1st District seat.
Cory Bilicko Staff Writer
During a two-hour meeting on July 9, the Long Beach City Council focused primarily on two particular issues: the possible naming of the new main library after tennis pro and Long Beach
native Billie Jean King; and calling for a special election to fill the seat vacated by 1st District Councilmember Lena Gonzalez, who was elected last month to replace Ricardo Lara in the state senate.
Library name The city council conducted a rather lengthy discussion, including significant public comment, on considering requests from community members to name the new main library the Billie Jean King Main Library and refer the
item to the Housing and Neighborhoods Committee for its consideration. Second District Councilmember Jeannine Pearce, who introduced the item, called King “a see LB page 14
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