Long Beach’s Black population is dwindling. This group aims to change that.

On the last Tuesday of each month, Black Long Beach residents gather at a local art gallery to discuss housing policies, build community and empower one another.

As the quickest declining population in Long Beach, Black Lives Matter (BLM) Grassroots LB saw a need to create a space where Black residents feel welcome to share their experiences, help one another and learn about much needed housing resources. Rather than reinvent the wheel, they teamed up with the city’s nonprofit housing advocacy organization, Long Beach Residents Empowered (LiBRE).

“The Black community in terms of housing and space in Long Beach is at a critical point right now,” said Brandie Davison, BLM and LiBRE community organizer who runs the Black Neighborhood Tenant Council. “It’s very important to have spaces that center Black community within housing … and LiBRE created this space knowing that this is going on in our community and making space for those people who are literally the most impacted right now.”

The Black Neighborhood Tenant Council has been holding monthly meetings since November, where a specific housing topic is discussed each meeting, such as renter’s rights, harassment ordinances and the history of housing and race in Long Beach. Inevitably, attendees get into their own discussions about their experiences in the city, current city council items and related local policies.

Meetings are designed to be tenant-led, Davison said, so while there is a predetermined topic, attendees often ask to discuss certain issues they need help with. She said the most requested topic from attendees is how to handle evictions. People are also interested in how to organize within their building, especially once they see that there is more power in numbers.

A 2013 Black State of Long Beach report created by Black residents showed that from 2000 to 2010, the Black population in Long Beach had decreased by 4,000 people, although the city’s overall population increased by about 700.

In 2010, Black residents made up about 13% of the city’s population, and that number has decreased to 11.9%, according to the most recent U.S. Census data. And according to Long Beach blog Longbeachize, the Black population dropped by 13% between 2018 and 2019.

This can be linked to rising rents, as data from 2017 shows that Black people are the most housing cost-burdened group in the city.

When Long Beach saw a migration of Black residents in the early 1900s, the city implemented racist redlining practices that concentrated the Black community to the central part of the city, which then received little investment. Redistricting of the city in 2021 led to Long Beach’s historically Black core being broken up into multiple districts, making it even harder to have a sense of community and organized political power for Black residents.

In 2020, Long Beach found that only 25% of Black residents are homeowners, half of the white homeownership rate in the city, and the least of all ethnicities in the city. The 2024 Point in Time Homeless count found that Black and Mexican communities are experiencing homelessness at the highest rates in the city.

Although LiBRE has been hosting Neighborhood Tenant Councils for years, Audrena Redmond with BLM noted the importance of creating a specific space for Black residents in need of these resources. LiBRE also noticed that they received lower participation from the Black community in these meetings.

“It’s important to say, ‘This is something directed at the Black community,’” Redmond said. “Yes, LiBRE has been around for a long time. A lot of people know about LiBRE, but they think that’s not something for them, but it is.”

Redmond approached LiBRE over a year ago about partnering, and since then Davison has spent her time learning about local housing policies, renters’ rights and effective housing justice.

“A big part of my role is to make sure the community knows about resources,” Davison said. “A lot of times when Black residents get into new spaces they don’t feel welcome. Black renters needed a safe space and a starting point of education to empower each other.”

According to the 2013 State of Black Long Beach, 73% of the Black community lives in rental housing, by far the most out of all ethnicities in the city. A 2023 survey found that two out of five Black women in California are rent burdened and face the highest levels of evictions, both legal and nonlegal.

“We have a saying in Black Lives Matter, which is that, ‘We are what we need,’ so we’re helping each other, sharing information we have and being a resource and building community,” Redmond said.

Along with building a community at the Black Neighborhood Tenant Council meetings, Davison said she hopes more Black leaders will come from these groups. Along with the meetings, LiBRE is currently advocating for updated terms of the just cause evictions, a right to counsel program, the creation of a community land trust and trying to get more community members to attend city budget meetings.

The Black Neighborhood Tenant Council will meet on Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. at Playnice (1029 E. Fourth St.). Residents are requested to RSVP at bit.ly/blmlbcmeeting.