Will Los Angeles Vote To House Homeless People Alongside Paying Hotel Guests?

Is the luxury hotel an endangered species? In Los Angeles, hotel operators say it may be if the “Responsible Hotel Ordinance” passes on the March 2024 ballot. The measure would essentially compel hotels with vacancies to house homeless people alongside guests.

But does the hotel industry, or any industry, have an obligation to help its workers find housing?

As a column in the Los Angeles Daily News put it, “Imagine the dismay of the people who work in the hotels if they have to manage that situation. Business travelers, tourists and visitors will be side-by-side in the corridors, elevators, lobby and breakfast room with people who have been relocated from a nearby tent encampment to enjoy the same accommodations, paid for by city taxpayers.”

The measure would require hotel operators to report their vacancies to the city of Los Angeles each afternoon. The city’s homeless agencies would then send individuals or families to the hotels, “market rate” voucher for payment in hand. The hotels would not be allowed to decline these guests or their vouchers.

In addition, the measure (text here) calls for the creation of a “citywide replacement housing program for new hotel development.” The sponsor of the measure says such requirements will help address the housing shortage in Los Angeles.

Chip Rogers, President of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, (AHLA) says, “The housing problem was not created by the hotel industry.” Of the voucher concept, he says, “It’s a taking, if I’m a hotel you’re forcing me to do it at a non-negotiated rate.”

Hotel operators, many of which are small businesses, are up in arms. Rogers said in an interview. “Putting homeless people in hotels alongside paying guests with no wraparound services is a bad idea and will put hotel workers in danger.”

Interestingly, it was the hotel workers union, Unite Here Local 11, that led the petition campaign. The idea of the measure, according to a spokesperson, is to have the hotels address homelessness and housing insecurity in Los Angeles.

Hotel industry spokespeople have said they believe the ballot measure is a negotiating tactic by the union, which is currently on a rolling strike against unionized hotels in Los Angeles.

“We are fighting for a wage that is living for achievable,” says Kurt Petersen, copresident of Unite Here local 11. Currently, the goal of the strike against unionized hotels is “an immediate raise of $5 from $25 for room attendants.”

Petersen says the hotels’ position “is that they don’t care that employees move further and further from their workplace, they don’t think they want to talk about housing. The smart ones know that they need to talk about it so they can a steady flow of workers.”

“Our proposal was that the hotels should publicly endorse the measure,” Petersen said. “We think the hotels have a role to play in solving the housing crisis. Over 50% of our members have had to move.”

“Why would the hotel industry be asked to build additional housing? How would putting homeless people in hotels be related to building additional housing?” Rogers asked.

Rogers predicted an immediate impact on both leisure and business/convention visitation to Los Angeles. Indeed, the first TV ad invoking the fear factor, from the Center for Union Facts, shows a bearded, bedraggled homeless man begging for change in a hotel hallways. Then he washes his underwear in the hotel swimming pool while hotel guests, housekeepers and others try to avoid him.

Unite Here spokesman Petersen called the ad “despicable.”

But if the measure passes, travelers will be able to bypass hotels in the city of Los Angeles housing homeless people alongside guests. Visitors can stay instead in one of more than 80 cities in Los Angeles County unaffected by the new ordinance, such as Burbank, Santa Monica, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Glendale and Malibu. And as Rogers points out, “Airbnb would not be subject to the measure.”

The initiative follows a voluntary hotel housing program called Project Roomkey. The goal was to limit the impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable homeless population. Using Federal funds, California cities rented out entire hotels, putting up more than 10,000 people in Los Angeles alone.

Project Room Key was a voluntary program that let hotel owners, struggling with low occupancy during the pandemic, rent their entire hotel to the government. Project Room Key also typically included services and security for the new residents.

“This measure and Project RoomKey are totally different,” says Rogers of the AHLA. “Project RoomKey wasn’t necessarily a success ,but at least they took over the whole building and provided services. Here, homeless people would be housed next door to a dwindling number of paying guests, with no services.”

Project Room Key was not without its problems. A number of residents died in various hotels, often of drug overdoses. In Los Angeles, the historic 294-room Mayfair Hotel in the Westlake District was used to house homeless people during Project Roomkey. In addition to broken windows, stolen items and vandalization, several residents suffered drug overdoses. Neighbors complained of drug and criminal activity spilling into their neighborhood.

After the program, the hotel’s owners presented the city with a bill for an additional $11.5 million in damages. Whether the new ordinance, if passed, will affect the ability of hotels to get insurance is unknown.

Rogers of AHLA says of the proposed new program, “Check in most hotels is post 2PM so you don’t know who’s coming or what your occupancy is. If someone has a voucher and decides not to check out, do you have to get law enforcement constantly there?”

Financing for the program has not been set, nor has who will set the ‘market rate’ for vouchers been determined. Hotel owners and operators will have no discretion on whether to accept or decline their new set of guests. Industry spokespeople have also expressed fears that vouchers could become “street currency” like shoplifted Tide Pods.

Rogers said, “Every major city is dealing with homelessness at some level. But this measure, the first of its kind, can affect the long-term health of the industry in LA and elsewhere.”

San Francisco is suffering a substantial decline in both leisure and business tourism. This is affecting the city’s hotels as well. The owners of the venerable Westin St. Francis are claiming that its assessed value of $787 million has dropped to $76 million.

Union leader Petersen rejected the comparison, saying Los Angeles hotels can pay their workers a living wage. He said that the LA region is already doing better than before the pandemic and will host the World Cup and the Olympics in 2026 and 2028. Petersen could not give an estimate of the financial impact to the hotels or taxpayers, saying only “We know this is going to help solve our housing crisis.”

Rogers of the AHLA said, “I don’t think they are attempting to purposely kill the golden goose of tourism. But this is a terrible idea, and we will speak loudly about it.”