Will [stupid...] Los Angeles voters back looming hotels-as-homeless-shelters ballot measure?

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/will-los-angeles-voters-back-looming-
hotels-as-homeless-shelters-ballot-measure/ar-AA1i8jKG

Los Angeles is undergoing a hotel construction boom. Representatives of
the hospitality industry charge that a March 2024 measure, if passed by
voting Angelenos, could bust it in a hurry by requiring hotels to fill
vacant rooms with the homeless.

The Unite Here union of hospitality workers gathered over 100,000
signatures to place the Los Angeles Responsible Hotel Ordinance on the
ballot in the California city of nearly 4 million people, the nation's
second most populous.

The union did not reply to a request for comment from the Washington
Examiner. But Kurt Petersen, co-president of Los Angeles’s Unite Here
Local 11, told Forbes, “We know this is going to help solve our housing
crisis.”

Others aren’t so sure it will solve any problems at all.

“The tourism industry would be negatively impacted and would see its
occupancy plummet overnight,” Ray Patel, president of the Northeast Los
Angeles Hotel Owners Association, told the Washington Examiner.

“Unite Here is fighting to fill all LA-area hotels with the same types of
activities you see on Skid Row,” said Chip Rogers, president of the
American Hotel and Lodging Association.

It's not hard to see Los Angeles hotel patrons bolting for other options
nearby.

Los Angeles, from its northernmost point in the San Fernando Valley
community of Sylmar, stretches nearly 48 miles south to the port area of
San Pedro. Los Angeles's immediate neighbors include prominent cities such
as Beverly Hills, Long Beach, Pasadena, and others whose officials would
be happy to see their municipalities take in the hotel business that might
otherwise land just a few blocks outside their limits.
Southern California city limits often zigzag and intersect so much that it
can be hard to tell at first glance where a hotel is actually located. For
instance, the Beverly Hills Marriott and the Residence Inn in Beverly
Hills are nearly across the street from each other on South Beverly Drive.
But neither is actually located in the iconic city known for its celebrity
residents and guests, grand homes, and flagship stores along Rodeo Drive.

Rather, both are in the city of Los Angeles, a couple of blocks' walk from
Beverly Hills. It's usually a distinction without a difference to hotel
guests satisfied with the proximity to nearby glitz and glamour — and
often lower nightly rates. But if those Los Angeles-based hotels, bearing
"Beverly Hills" in their names, become homeless havens, would-be patrons
are a lot likelier to shop around. Outside of Los Angeles city limits.

Guest and Worker Safety

Rogers, the American Hotel and Lodging Association president, predicted
dire effects for Los Angeles hotels if the measure passes.

It would “jeopardize the safety of both hotel guests and workers,
virtually destroy the city’s tourism industry, and cause massive job
losses,” Rogers told the Washington Examiner.

Moreover, his group has some numbers to back that prediction up.

An AHLA poll of over 2,000 people conducted in mid-September found that
“72% of Americans said they would be deterred from booking a hotel room in
Los Angeles if hotels there are forced to house homeless people next to
paying guests.”

It would mean less repeat business as well.

“That number jumps to 83% among those who have previously visited LA,” the
poll found.

Unite Here is in negotiations with several Los Angeles hotels to try to
push its workers’ minimum wage up to $30 an hour. There is some
speculation that the union is using the ballot initiative as a bargaining
chip to force concessions.

The union has the right to withdraw the initiative until early December,
according to the City of Los Angeles Initiative, Referendum, and Recall
Petition Handbook.

In addition to putting this measure on the ballot, Unite Here has been
engaged in “rolling strikes” and walkouts and pressured companies not to
do business with many hotels until a better deal for union workers is
brokered.

The hotels that are negotiating with Unite Here have not taken the ballot
measure in stride. The Coordinated Bargaining Group of 44 hotels in Los
Angeles and Orange County went so far as to file unfair labor practice
charges with the National Labor Relations Board and claim that the union
has been “refusing to bargain in good faith” in a news release.

The Los Angeles Responsible Hotel Ordinance ballot measure has several
items on it, including some more popular NIMBY provisions, which could
muddy the waters. A July AHLA poll of 500 Angelenos found 46% supported
the measure.

However, the Los Angeles City Council did not support it. The council was
given a chance to pass it in August 2022. The measure flopped that hurdle
with one yay and 11 nays.

Joe Buscaino, who was a councilman at the time, called it “the dumbest
measure I’ve seen in my 10-year tenure as a city council member” and the
“worst of all options as it relates to solving homelessness in the city of
LA,” according to the California Globe.

The AHLA is pressing the Los Angeles City Council to do more on this
matter.

“The Los Angeles City Council has yet to hold a hearing regarding the
devastating economic impacts this policy would have on the city,” Rogers
said. “AHLA is calling on the council to hold an economic impact hearing
as soon as possible and to enact a resolution in opposition to Unite
Here’s homeless-in-hotels ballot measure to more clearly inform the public
of the council’s stance on the measure.”

Hotels — Not Health and Rehab Centers

If passed, the measure would require the city’s hotels to give daily
vacancy reports to the city government, which would then issue vouchers to
many of the city’s homeless residents. The homeless could then use those
to check in for the night and could not be turned away for any reason.

There would be some compensation for hotels for the room rental, though
compensation for property damage and lost business could be harder to come
by.

Patel — who, as part of being president of the Northeast Los Angeles Hotel
Owners Association, also owns a Welcome Inn — laid out some of the
problems that the homeless bring to hotels.

Many of the homeless or “unhoused,” he said, “need wraparound services,
which include substance abuse support, mental health support, around-the-
clock security, food, and clothing.”

Patel pointed out that hotels “are not able to provide wraparound service”
because that’s not their expertise. “This type of service requires
certification training and special licensing,” he said.

He further pleaded that “placing those with mental and addiction problems
will endanger hotel staff, paying guests,” and other, less problem-plagued
homeless guests.

Patel also pointed out that people can visit Los Angeles without staying
there and would be more likely to do so were this to pass.

“The traveling public would opt to stay outside of Los Angeles,” he said.
“The geography of Los Angeles makes it easy to stay in neighboring towns,
and they would commute to Los Angeles from the hotels just outside of the
city borders.”

The hotelier lamented that should this all come to pass, it could
negatively affect Los Angeles hotel workers as well.

“It will become difficult to retain staff, and we would lose our employees
to hotels outside of the city boundaries,” he predicted.

As a result, Patel does not believe Los Angeles hotel owners, their staff,
or “immediate neighbors” will be a good source of votes for the March
ballot measure.

Rogers added that many more Los Angeles residents may sour on the
proposal.

“There are multiple issues included in this ballot measure, and that has
the potential to confuse people. But the more people learn about the
aspects of the measure dealing with homelessness, the less they like it,”
Rogers said.

Tags: California, Los Angeles, Hotels, Homelessness, Business, Crime,
Workplace Safety, News, Wages


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