L.A. voters to decide whether hotels must rent vacant rooms to homeless people
2 years, 4 months ago

L.A. voters to decide whether hotels must rent vacant rooms to homeless people

LA Times  

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday voted 12 to 0 to send a measure that would require L.A. hotels to rent vacant rooms to homeless people to the ballot in 2024. A controversial measure that would require hotels in Los Angeles to rent vacant rooms to homeless people will go before voters in 2024, the City Council decided Friday. “Even as a union member with a good-paying job, I was recently homeless due to the housing crisis in our city,” said Bambian Taft, who identified herself as a hotel minibar attendant and former housekeeper. Taft said she had recently paid out of pocket to stay at hotels with her daughters when there was “no work for me at the hotel.” Amid a broader housing crisis, the proposal would also yoke the development of some new hotels to affordable housing construction.

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History of this topic

A radical reshaping of L.A. County’s homeless services system is proposed
4 weeks ago

A radical reshaping of L.A. County’s homeless services system is proposed

LA Times  

Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian, from right, and L.A. County Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Kathryn Barger join other volunteers to count the homeless in North Hollywood on Jan. 23. Responding to long-standing dissatisfaction over the effectiveness of homelessness programs, Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Kathryn Barger are proposing a new county department that would take over hundreds of millions …

Amid a serious budget crunch, L.A. faces pressure to pay more for homeless services
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Amid a serious budget crunch, L.A. faces pressure to pay more for homeless services

LA Times  

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, pictured in June, vowed to keep the city’s interim housing sites open to serve the city’s homeless population. The Greater LA Coalition on Homelessness, which represents dozens of homeless service providers across L.A. County, said those nonprofit groups have not been getting paid for the full cost of the services they provide at the city’s …

Los Angeles’ $22-billion homelessness problem gives leaders a choice: Double down or change strategies
2 months, 1 week ago

Los Angeles’ $22-billion homelessness problem gives leaders a choice: Double down or change strategies

LA Times  

City of Los Angeles officials are finally confronting a question that has seemed too big to answer: How much would it actually cost to get every person living on the street today indoors and make sure that no one languished there for years again? “In other ways, it doesn’t seem that eye-popping to me for the scale of the problem.” …

Editorial: Drop in L.A.’s homeless population shows efforts to house people are paying off
5 months, 3 weeks ago

Editorial: Drop in L.A.’s homeless population shows efforts to house people are paying off

LA Times  

Wah Chen, 52, counts a homeless man sleeping next to his tent while participating in the second night of the 2024 Los Angeles County homeless count on Jan. 24. The results of the 2024 point-in-time homeless count released Friday show a 2.2% drop in the population of unhoused people living in the city of Los Angeles, from 46,260 in 2023 …

Photos: 2024 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count is underway
10 months, 4 weeks ago

Photos: 2024 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count is underway

LA Times  

The annual three-night Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count is underway with volunteers fanning out to tally the number of unsheltered individuals, tents, vehicles and makeshift shelters they see in their assigned census tract. The 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count revealed a 9% year-over-year increase in homelessness in Los Angeles County and a 10% rise in Los Angeles. While participating …

Column: Is L.A. actually solving homelessness? The answer will start with perception, not reality
1 year ago

Column: Is L.A. actually solving homelessness? The answer will start with perception, not reality

LA Times  

Mayor Karen Bass, accompanied by HUD official Richard J. Monocchio, left, and City Councilmembers Nithya Raman, far left, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Bob Blumenfield, speak to reporters in Hollywood on Wednesday. “I do really worry that it’s become normalized in public discourse to speak about people experiencing homelessness as, like, a problem for those who are not homeless — as opposed …

Deal struck to remove homeless hotel housing measure from L.A.’s March ballot
1 year, 1 month ago

Deal struck to remove homeless hotel housing measure from L.A.’s March ballot

LA Times  

Unite Here Local 11, the hotel workers union, has been staging rolling strikes for several months. Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian has struck a deal with the politically powerful hotel workers’ union to remove a measure from the March election ballot that would have required hotels to participate in a city program to put homeless residents in vacant …

Editorial: L.A.’s homeless numbers are grim. We must keep building housing and expanding services
1 year, 5 months ago

Editorial: L.A.’s homeless numbers are grim. We must keep building housing and expanding services

LA Times  

An encampment in downtown Los Angeles along an offramp to the 110 Freeway in 2019. Especially alarming is the 18% jump from 2022 in the number of chronically homeless people in the county These are the most vulnerable individuals in the homeless population — the ones who have been unhoused for at least a year and struggle with a mental …

Looming strike poses challenge for Mayor Karen Bass at homeless housing hotel
1 year, 5 months ago

Looming strike poses challenge for Mayor Karen Bass at homeless housing hotel

LA Times  

The L.A. Grand in downtown Los Angeles has been critical to the mayor’s Inside Safe intiative, which seeks to dismantle homeless encampments and bring people indoors. A strike would disrupt operations at the L.A. Grand, the downtown hotel that has provided about 480 rooms for the city’s unhoused population since the outbreak of COVID-19. Unite Here Local 11 co-President Kurt …

Column: It took public shaming, but victims of LAPD’s fireworks explosion won’t be evicted
1 year, 9 months ago

Column: It took public shaming, but victims of LAPD’s fireworks explosion won’t be evicted

LA Times  

Kenia Quintanilla keeps a watchful eye on her two-year-old daughter Mia Samano while she plays on the balcony of their room at the Level Hotel in downtown Los Angeles in June 2022. “They’ve had it good living in the hotel rent-free for several months,” Price told my Times colleague Brittny Mejia this week. “We remain committed to seeing this tragedy …

Editorial: Is L.A.’s anti-camping law getting homeless people off sidewalks and into housing? Let’s find out
1 year, 10 months ago

Editorial: Is L.A.’s anti-camping law getting homeless people off sidewalks and into housing? Let’s find out

LA Times  

Nearly two years ago, the Los Angeles City Council passed a controversial ordinance that banned camping by homeless people near schools, day-care centers and parks as well as any other locations that council members wanted to decree off-limits. In tandem with the anti-camping law, the City Council adopted a street engagement strategy whereby people would be told to leave an …

L.A. to keep downtown hotel open as homeless housing for another year
1 year, 11 months ago

L.A. to keep downtown hotel open as homeless housing for another year

LA Times  

Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park, left, and Mayor Karen Bass attend a reception Friday celebrating efforts to move dozens of homeless people in Venice into temporary housing. The L.A. Grand Hotel, which served as temporary housing for a portion of the city’s homeless population since the outbreak of COVID-19, will continue operating until at least Jan. 31, 2024, said …

Many homeless people resist group shelters even as L.A. mayoral candidates push to build more
2 years, 7 months ago

Many homeless people resist group shelters even as L.A. mayoral candidates push to build more

LA Times  

Loryn Montag, a homeless engagement team member with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, takes Michael Watson to a tiny-house village as a sanitation crew prepares to remove a homeless encampment from the sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on April 5. The Los Angeles mayoral primary has seen candidates throwing big numbers around concerning how much shelter they’d …

Tax proposed on L.A. property sales over $5 million to fund homeless housing
3 years ago

Tax proposed on L.A. property sales over $5 million to fund homeless housing

LA Times  

In an ambitious effort to address the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, a coalition of housing advocates, labor unions and progressive activist groups plans to file paperwork Thursday for a ballot measure that would increase taxes on real estate transactions in the city to fund permanent housing for homeless people and those at risk of ending up on the street. …

L.A.’s mayoral candidates agree homeless encampments need to go. The question is how
3 years ago

L.A.’s mayoral candidates agree homeless encampments need to go. The question is how

LA Times  

Facing an enormous public outcry to solve homelessness in Los Angeles, nearly all of the leading candidates for mayor in 2022 agree on at least one thing: The problem of thousands of people sleeping in tents and RVs across the city is a crisis deserving of a disaster-level response. They said the city also needs to continue building permanent housing …

L.A. voters back a right to shelter, but are wary of taxes to pay for it, new poll finds
3 years ago

L.A. voters back a right to shelter, but are wary of taxes to pay for it, new poll finds

LA Times  

Los Angeles County voters broadly support a legal right to shelter for all but offer tepid backing for new taxes that might pay for it, a new poll finds. The new poll, conducted by the Los Angeles Business Council Institute in cooperation with The Times, found that a significant majority of voters, 58%, said they believed the region can solve …

Poll on homelessness: How it was done
3 years ago

Poll on homelessness: How it was done

LA Times  

Two years ago, the Los Angeles Times worked with the Los Angeles Business Council Institute to conduct a groundbreaking poll about attitudes toward homelessness. The survey questioned 906 Los Angeles County voters from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3, by telephone and online. Countywide poll seeks Angelenos’ opinions on homelessness The Los Angeles Business Council Institute conducted a survey in cooperation …

L.A. just changed its entire approach to homelessness. Does it place politics above need?
3 years, 1 month ago

L.A. just changed its entire approach to homelessness. Does it place politics above need?

LA Times  

The city of Los Angeles has undertaken a major shift in its approach to homelessness, one that puts a priority on clearing unsightly street encampments even when insufficient permanent housing exists for the people being moved. This balance, he said, was made possible by the expansion of outreach and services for homeless people, and the development of new housing and …

L.A. sets goal of 25,000 new housing units for homeless people
3 years, 4 months ago

L.A. sets goal of 25,000 new housing units for homeless people

LA Times  

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council approved a goal of building 25,000 new housing units for the city’s homeless population. Facing an acute housing crisis and rising public anger over tents in public spaces, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved an ambitious goal of building 25,000 units of new housing for homeless people by 2025. Housing & …

In abrupt shift, L.A. backs new measure to restrict homeless encampments
3 years, 5 months ago

In abrupt shift, L.A. backs new measure to restrict homeless encampments

LA Times  

L.A. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas coauthored a new proposal to restrict camping near public facilities, saying it is more humane than an alternative that was being considered. The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to draft new rules barring homeless people from camping near schools, parks, libraries and other “sensitive” facilities, a sudden change in direction for a city struggling …

Editorial: Are L.A. leaders serious about homeless housing?
3 years, 7 months ago

Editorial: Are L.A. leaders serious about homeless housing?

LA Times  

The building at 10243 N. Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Chatsworth is currently an automotive sales lot and garages but is the planned site for a 55-unit homeless housing development. On the same day that U.S. District Judge David O. Carter issued an order lambasting L.A.’s political leaders for failing to treat homelessness like the humanitarian crisis it is, Councilman John …

L.A. is entitled to federal aid to put homeless people in hotels. It hasn’t asked for any yet
3 years, 9 months ago

L.A. is entitled to federal aid to put homeless people in hotels. It hasn’t asked for any yet

LA Times  

The city of Los Angeles has not received millions of dollars in federal aid it may be owed for housing homeless people in hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic because, nearly a year into the crisis, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s administration hasn’t asked for the money yet. Local, state and federal officials say the city hasn’t requested reimbursement from the Federal Emergency …

Several L.A. City Council members back law to ban homeless camps near city shelters
4 years, 2 months ago

Several L.A. City Council members back law to ban homeless camps near city shelters

LA Times  

City leaders are considering an ordinance that would allow the removal of makeshift housing near the sites of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s A Bridge Home homeless shelter program. Several Los Angeles City Council members are pushing for a new law that would make it illegal for homeless people to set up camps near freeway overpasses and the city’s new temporary …

Program to house homeless people in hotels is ending after falling short of goal
4 years, 3 months ago

Program to house homeless people in hotels is ending after falling short of goal

LA Times  

Genia Hope, 52, moves into her new room at a hotel on July 7 as part of Project Roomkey, an L.A. County program that repurposed hotels and motels emptied by the coronavirus as safe havens for homeless people. It’s the beginning of the end for L.A. County’s Project Roomkey, the $100 million-plus program to repurpose hotels and motels emptied by …

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