LA Pulls Ballot Measure That Would Have Forced Hotels to House Homeless
The city will instead adopt rules to preserve housing near future hotels and to oversee short-term rentals
By Nick Trombola December 11, 2023 5:56 pm
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The Los Angeles City Council last week unanimously withdrew a controversial measure from the upcoming March ballot that would’ve required hotels in the city to place unhoused people in vacant rooms.
The measure, dubbed the Responsible Hotel Ordinance, would have compelled hotels to report their vacancies to the city’s housing department, which in turn would grant “market rate” vouchers to unhoused people for those rooms. The council voted 14-0 to remove the measure, with Councilmember Nithya Raman absent, after striking a deal with Unite Here Local 11, a powerful hotel union that originally proposed the ordinance.
In its place, the city will instead adopt a series of new regulations aimed at preserving housing near hotel developments and beefing up oversight of short-term rentals, such as those available through Airbnb.
“We are grateful to Mayor [Karen] Bass and Council President Paul Krekorian for finding the path to a common-sense solution, protecting our hotel employees – especially housekeepers – our guests and Los Angeles’ reputation,” said Lynn S. Mohrfeld, president and CEO of the California Hotel & Lodging Association.
Under the new regulations, hotel developers must obtain a permit from L.A. ‘s Department of City Planning after undergoing a public review of a given project’s impact on nearby housing. If the project calls for the demolition of nearby housing, the developers will be required to replace it.
“The shortage of affordable housing in Los Angeles doesn’t just drive the crisis of homelessness in our streets,” Krekorian said last month. “It hurts everyone who’s looking for a home in Los Angeles. The hospitality industry is a vital and necessary component of our local economy, and we need hotels to welcome the thousands of visitors we receive, but new hotel construction cannot come at the cost of our current housing stock. Irresponsible hotel and short-term rental operators cannot be allowed to endanger the public safety or impair the quality of life in our neighborhoods.”
“We have said all along that our contract campaign has been about two things: housing for our members where they work and a living wage,” Unite Here Local 11 Co-President Kurt Petersen said in a statement in November, when the new compromise was introduced. “With this ordinance, we have done more to protect housing than any single contract demand would have done. The fight for a living wage continues.”
Additionally, under the new rules, short-term rental owners must obtain a permit from city police by submitting business and tax information, building safety details, and records of any previous criminal history.
Supporters of that measure say that the new police permitting will help manage the tidal wave of short-term rentals seen in the city in recent years, along with helping to crack down on rental “party houses” and trafficking concerns. Yet, opponents, including the Los Angeles Police Department, argue that the permitting process would stack a heavy workload burden.
The new ordinance also wouldn’t quite do away with the idea of using vacant hotel rooms to combat homelessness. Rather than requiring hotels to report vacancies, the city will instead create a voluntary registry for participating hotels to list rooms available for interim placement, reminiscent of Mayor Bass’s “Inside Safe” initiative.
Laura Lee Blake, president and CEO of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, praised the council’s decision to make the regulations more cooperative.
“AAHOA applauds the decision to transition the mandatory homeless voucher program into a voluntary initiative. This shift significantly empowers our hoteliers to pursue long-term solutions to a homelessness crisis that must be addressed,” Blake said in a statement last month. “By collaborating with local stakeholders, we can create a more compassionate and sustainable future for everyone.”
Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.
