Dear Friend --

Addressing the statewide and local housing and homelessness crisis continues to be our number one priority and to do that we’ve got to continue being innovative. That’s why we’ve launched a social work intern pilot program at Long Beach Public Libraries.

With support from the Health Department, the Long Beach Public Library system now has Master’s in Social Work students—from Cal State Long Beach and USC—working as interns to connect library patrons who may be experiencing homelessness or mental illness with social services like mental health care, legal support, food security benefits and housing resources.

Long Beach Public Libraries are a place where are all welcome and often the only place some folks can access the internet or just sit and read a book out of the cold rain. Our City’s libraries are vital for connecting communities to local resources and services, and this pilot program provides an enhanced level of service to our city’s most vulnerable residents.


My thanks to the Department of Health and the Long Beach Public Libraries, who collaborated to create this new program. We’ll evaluate the program in May 2020.

We’ve made good progress combatting homelessness, but we still have a long road ahead. This kind of service is important to meeting all of the goals outlined in the Everyone Home Task Force Report, released last year, and it’s just one of the ways the city is working every day to get Everyone Home. You can read about our goals and the services we’re providing in the Everyone Home Task Force report here.

It will take time and hard work, but I know together we can get Everyone Home.

Go Long Beach,

Mayor Robert Garcia