Making Real Progress on Homelessness — and Not Stopping Now
Making Real Progress on Homelessness — and Not Stopping Now
Long Beach families see homelessness every day. They've watched it grow for years. Rex Richardson isn't pretending that's not true — and he's not accepting it as inevitable either. He's the mayor who built the city's first municipal homeless shelter, launched the first-ever youth shelter, and delivered Long Beach's first decline in street homelessness in nearly a decade. He's just getting started.
Under Rex's leadership:
Long Beach achieved consecutive years of declining street homelessness — including its first decline in nearly a decade in 2024 and a sustained 17% reduction in unsheltered homelessness through 2025 — made possible by expanding city-provided shelter capacity by 84%.
Rex built Long Beach's first municipal homeless shelter, Atlantic Farms Bridge Housing Community, with 125 beds and plans for 240 additional units, plus the city's first permanent Youth Shelter & Navigation Center — providing safe housing and wraparound services for young people ages 18–24.
He launched Upstream LB, Long Beach's first homelessness prevention strategy, securing more than $15 million annually from LA County Measure A to keep families housed, provide rental assistance to vulnerable seniors, and protect residents from losing their homes due to federal cuts.
The Long Beach Housing Promise, developed in partnership with CSULB, LBCC, and Long Beach Unified, is expanding affordable housing options for students and families — investing in the people who will carry this city forward.
More than 5,000 housing units approved — the most in any three-year period since the 1980s — helping make Long Beach more affordable than other parts of the region.
As Chair of the LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, Rex secured over $16 million flowing directly to Long Beach annually to keep families housed.
Rex expanded mobile access centers, mental health clinics, outreach teams, and safe parking sites — meeting people where they are, with care and long-term solutions.
Rex bought his first home in North Long Beach at 25. He knows what housing security means and what it costs when you don't have it. He's not just talking about the housing crisis. He's doing something about it.