Morgan hopes to see police responding to a significantly reduced number of calls for service, to see support from the police, and for the city to truly embrace community voices in informing how to care for one another, she said. “The source, the root of policing, is very destructive,” Morgan said. “Anytime you can bring community together to care for one another, wonderful things can happen there.”

Melissa Morgan, a communications director for Long Beach Forward, which is a part of a coalition of community groups that issue the “People’s Budget” every year, said that community members are distrustful of the city over previous failed attempts to have their voices heard, and the proof that the city is listening will lie in how it incorporates community input this time around. “Progress really takes a long time when we’re talking about social justice issues,” Morgan said, adding that the victories the coalition didn’t see in last year’s budget will fuel how it compiles its demands this year.

“When everyday people come together and realize that they have power and voice to inform the budget process — that’s been the key to the successes in the past,” said Melissa Morgan, communications director of LB Forward, an organization supporting the People’s Budget movement.

Melissa Morgan, communication director for Long Beach Forward—which is a member of the Housing Justice Coalition—said the item was “watered down” and wouldn’t protect working families who were currently facing evictions. “Many are frontline workers. You have been calling them heroes,” she said. “Let’s give them heroic treatment.”