Data requested by NBCLA and released by the city of Long Beach shows that since 2021, the Project off Long Beach Boulevard is among the 62 homeless deaths enrolled in 12 city-funded shelters and programs. The Homekey Best Western property occupied 20 people.
The facility, located at 1725 Long Beach Blvd., had been the center of concerns from former employees who complained that understaffing could be contributing to an increase in deaths among residents. A total of eight people died at the scene, and 11 others died outside the scene, mostly in hospital.
Project Home Key provides temporary transitional housing and services to homeless people.
The city of Long Beach said in an earlier statement that “the primary cause of death, where known, was cancer.”
Project Homekey Sites, operated by Orange County-based Illumination Foundation, has been awarded three annual contracts worth more than $2 million to operate the 99-bed facility starting in March 2021.
Illumination Foundation executives alerted Long Beach Homeless Services Director Paul Duncan about caseworkers' concerns about a lack of additional medical assistants and addiction counselors, according to emails obtained by NBC4.
NBC4 reached out to the Illumination Foundation for comment on Tuesday and two more times last month, but did not receive a response.
Illumination Foundation ended its contract with the city in February, and a new nonprofit organization, First to Serve, was hired to operate the facility.
On April 3, the City of Long Beach confirmed that increased staffing will be part of new changes when the new operator begins management later this month.
“Changes to our traditional daily operations are expected and will be improved over the coming weeks,” said Jennifer Des Preez with the Long Beach Office of Public Affairs and Communications. “In the area of staffing, onsite support staff will increase from 17 to 25. Onsite case manager staff will increase to four, and one case manager will be a mental health clinician.”