Hotels in Los Angeles will be named by the city council if they refuse to house homeless people during the coronavirus pandemic.
The council voted on Wednesday to disclose publicly which hotels refuse to house the homeless as part of the city’s “Project Roomkey,” which aims to place 15,000 homeless people in hotel rooms throughout the city. So far, about 1,800 have been given rooms.
Several hotels, including the Ritz Carlton in downtown Los Angeles, have declined to house homeless people in the program. According to Councilman Mike Bonin, hotels have either been unable to house additional people or have cited “security concerns, liability issues, objections from corporate management, or fear of lost revenue from being branded a ‘homeless hotel.'”
The Ritz Carlton, which was named by the council during its meeting, has noted that the building is not just a hotel and features several condominiums owned by individuals. One real estate broker who manages six of the condos, Art Avaness, told FOX 11 that the program wouldn’t be fair to people who own property within the building.
“In theory, it’s a great idea, I support the program. But in practice, specifically for this property, it just isn’t, because you want to house hundreds of homeless people in a structure that’s literally in the same building with 224 homeowners? Having it in your own home basically is just a little too much, in fact, it’s offensive,” he said.
Avaness noted that the 224 condos in the building have listing prices between $1 million and $40 million. Bonin said the value of the hotel shouldn’t matter.
“I don’t think fancy hotels should be exempt from Project Roomkey,” Bonin said. “As we look to hotels to step up, those that have benefited from public investment and public largess — those are the first that we should be looking towards.”
The city also argued that hotels should have to give back to the city by helping with this program because of tax breaks the hotel industry received in recent years.
“It would seem to me to be a complete justification that we expect something back, especially during an emergency,” said Councilman Mitch O’ Farrell.
Bonin suggested that the city should consider “commandeering” the hotels and forcing them to participate in the program. He said the public should be made aware of any hotel that refused to participate.
“If people, hotels are making a distinction among people classifying housed and unhoused differently in terms of accommodations that they’re going to be paid for, that the city is going to pay for, the county is going to pay for with reimbursements, then I think there’s a potential civil rights violation,” he said. “If the problems are on the hotel end, the public should know why, and then we should consider commandeering as they have talked about in other cities.”
“I am grateful the City Council unanimously voted today to find out why hotels that have received public benefit are not stepping up to protect public health during this unprecedented crisis,” he added.
The website for Project Roomkey noted that homeless guests could stay at a hotel for as long as three months. The city stated that hotels that did participate in the program would remain anonymous, writing: “The address of each Project Roomkey site is confidential. Only people who meet the requirements and are referred through appropriate channels can participate. Project Roomkey sites are not walk-up facilities.”
