After damaging fire, Long Beach Rescue Mission reopens shelter for women and children

A longtime pastor, Long Beach Rescue Mission Executive Director Jeff Levine has a tough time not speaking in the cadence of story. He told his audience he’d try to avoid tears, but he made no promises.

Lacing in Hebrews 13:5 and John 15:6, he detailed the events of a pivotal night last December, three days before Christmas, starting with a phone call at 11 p.m.

He knew something was wrong, he said. “And I answered, ‘There’s no good reason for you to be calling me right now. What’s going on?’ And she said, ‘The Lydia House is on fire.’”

On this Friday, more than seven months later, the Lydia House — the Rescue Mission’s shelter for homeless and abused women and children — was reborn.

Levine joined more than a hundred others in the courtyard of the 50-bed facility to celebrate the end of renovations necessitated by the blaze.

The fire, later found to have been set by a resident , was quickly extinguished. But it caused heavy damage to the building’s first floor and displaced 47 women and children.

It was a terror-turned-teaching, Levine said, as within the first 12 hours, “God provided $50,000 and eleven rooms in one of the nicest hotels in the city.”

Construction cost $500,000 and took about eight months, finishing last week, Levine said.

And the inside is nearly as pristine as the five design canvases laid out: Hallways are clean and brightly colored, its communal kitchen spacious and its bedrooms newly renovated, all helping to give the feel of a cozy, Christian college dormitory.

“I’m excited to go see what the kitchen looks like, and the pantry,” said Chris Pollock, who previously volunteered at the Lydia House. “The women and children that come here deserve this.”

Things at the Mission are “moving fast,” Levine said. It recently opened a 15-bed facility for unhoused and physically disabled men and plans to break ground on a three-story center in October, one that will include a dining hall, chapel and gym.

But the quick expansion is only keeping up with the inflow. The 15-bed site has stayed filled since two weeks after it opened in February. And the Mission has at least 60 people on its waitlist, as it couldn’t take new clients while it underwent renovations.

“When you got a mom with a 6-month-old that’s sleeping in their car, and you gotta tell her, no, it’s just, it’s tough. … It’s tough.” Levine said.

Homelessness remains the largest, if not the most visible, crisis in Long Beach. Unhoused are seen along the benches, sidewalks and streets across the city.

Around 40% of those homeless are women and children, according to the nonprofit.

In his comments, Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson applauded the Mission’s accomplishments, saying they’re the kind of partner that can “help us meet this moment.”

“Not only do they provide shelter, they’re partners in thinking about what capacity is missing, right?” Richardson said. “This is a shelter for women and children at the most vulnerable times, and we have a shortage of shelter specifically for those most vulnerable families.”

Richardson does not dispute the fact that problems and shortcomings continue to plague the city, nor that there is more work ahead. But, Friday, he ventured a moment of optimism.

He brought up the 62% rise in homelessness from 2020 to 2022, punctuated by a 2% drop in 2023 — the first in years.

“I remember in 2019 when we didn’t have any public shelter available in the city at all,” Richardson said. “And now we’re at a place where we have, between public and private, nearly 2,000 beds across our city.”

As the festivities died down outside, a woman stood in the corner of the yard, delicately planting purple geraniums in a standing box garden along the perimeter. Spades and flowers were staked out for attendees, who were invited to plant one as an act of revival.

Christmas remains a tough subject for Marquita Whitfield, who returned home on Dec. 26 from a four-day trip to find the shelter charred and ashen. “My heart was broken,” Whitfield said through the use of an ESL interpreter.

Whitfield remains as one of the 36 residents who stayed at Lydia House since before the fire.

Standing next to her, Maggie Astilleros said it was “a blessing” that Whitfield wasn’t there that night.

“She wouldn’t have been able to hear what’s going on,” Astilleros said, translating for Whitfield.

To donate, volunteer or learn more about the Long Beach Rescue Mission, visit them online here .

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