Greater local preference for affordable housing sought

By Paul Eakins on September 28, 2009 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Long Beach City Council members Robert Garcia and Gary DeLong want to examine giving preference to more local residents in affordable housing developments. They announced today that at next week's council meeting they will be asking the council to approve having city staff report on the feasibility of stronger local presence.

According to a press release from DeLong and Garcia, 60 percent of affordable housing in Long Beach goes to local residents, but they would like to see more. No changes to the current affordable housing system would be implemented at Tuesday's meeting. It would only be the first step in the process of possibly changing Long Beach's policy.

See the full council agenda here.

Paul Eakins reports on Long Beach City Hall, and local and regional politics. A newcomer to the Press-
Telegram, he previously has covered local and state government and politics in San Diego County, Mexico and his home state of Kansas.

E-mail Paul at paul.eakins@presstelegram.com.

Kris Hanson reports on the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, covering environmental issues, economic triumphs and pitfalls and trade trends of America’s largest port. He also writes a weekly column “On The Waterfront”, appearing Tuesdays, and also produces an occassional video and column titled “On The Job,” which follows the hard-working men and women who keep Southern California’s economy humming.

E-mail Kris at kristopher.hanson@
presstelegram.com.

Karen Robes Meeks came to work for the Press-
Telegram in April 2002 as a beat reporter, covering the cities of Lakewood, Bellflower and Paramount. She now covers business, specifically redevelopment, tourism and small businesses. She also writes Eye on Redevelopment, a monthly column that appears in the Business Monday section.