Los Angeles voters will decide if vacant hotels should house the homeless

58 comments

Should vacant Los Angeles hotels house the homeless? Voters will decide that question at the ballot box in 2024. CNN’s Nick Watt reports on the proposal that some think isn’t a good idea. #CNN #News

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58 comments

  1. It’s not the hotels responsibility in any way shape or form. Those that are forcing this b.s. should be held accountable for when this genius idea goes south and innocent people are harmed. And it will go south.

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    2. And who’s going to pay for the maintenance, utilities, cleaning, furnishings, etc? And what happens if they get back on their feet and can support themselves? Do you take the free government home away and make them support themselves and get their own housing like normal people?

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    3. @gmc9753 the Government should provide housing for anyone and everyone that wants it. And It doesn’t have to be the Ritz.

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    4. AT LAST a sensible comment from a decent human being. You are clearly a very unusual person in America.

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  3. As a housekeeping manager this a horrible idea. In my 4 year experience most homeless destroy or trash the hotel rooms or lock themselves in

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    1. They need to reopen the mental institutions and they can stay there under the care of health professionals.

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  5. How do voters decide over private businesses? Let me vote to have homeless people sleep in your spare bedroom!

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    2. It’s paying with tax payer money to fund a program. Hotels volunteer into the program. As was said in the video. Nice attention span.

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    3. @King DJ That volunteer program just ended. This program would FORCE hotels to take in the homeless. Maybe just shut-up if you don’t know what your talking about..

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    4. @King DJ explain how america isn’t a monarchy if it is so willing to give out free stuff to a few on the account of the many efforts and savings?

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  6. Homeowners too. Each month every homeowner should be required to report any unused bedrooms that could house a homeless person or family.

    And commuters…. Everyone who commutes should be required to give rides to homeless people to and from those hotels and homes.

    And restaurants need to provide manifests of unused ingredients each day at 4pm that could be used to prepare meals for the homeless.

    Where does this end?

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  7. As a person who strongly supports action for the homeless, I think that it is just plain silly that they are proposing this while at the same time they are banning tiny home communities all over the city.
    how about rezoning unused carparks and other blocks of land to allow for semi-permanent tiny home communities so that people in genuine need have a place to rebuild their lives instead of forcing them to continually move from hotel room to hotel room or live illegally in tents on the side of the road.
    There are so many non-profit organizations willing to build tiny homes for people but they keep getting evicted (and sometimes destroyed) by local governments who only care about what effect it might have on local house prices.
    It wouldn’t solve all homelessness but it would easily cut the problem in half (at no cost to the tax payer) if they just got off their asses and legislated to make tiny homes legal.

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    1. see but that would empower people and make them the “doers” while lowering regulation, whereas this scheme is the government forcing additional responsibilities onto people who don’t want it so of course they’d pick #2

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    3. I’ve seen only four tiny home communities, but they were all very charming & picturesque. They definitely beat the hell out of any trailer park I’ve ever seen! This is AMERICA damnit!! There should not be even one person going without food or a roof over their heads!!!

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    5. It doesn’t even require a tiny home there are plenty of vans at junk yards which can be permanently parked on parking lots then you just need porta potties security guards and drug testing. San Diego is looking into doing this but I don’t know if they’re going to do the drug testing and I don’t know if they’ve figured out that they should be able to buy vans from junk yards for cheap or even get them donated.

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  8. Very true what that manager said, hotel staff are not trained or ready to handle homeless people, if the state or city is going to make it mandatory to pass a drug test, then this will make a little bit more sense, but this is an example of why the government shouldn’t play with other peoples property or investment- they are doing this to make themselves less liable..

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  9. I managed a large resort/hotel for many years, this would shut it down, for many reasons, but mostly because staff would walk out. I certainly would walk out. Looking after and picking up after regular hotel guests is difficult enough as many of them damage things and don’t want to pay for them, but a vail credit card deposit takes care of that problem, but not with the homeless, they have no credit card or money, and the state or city will fight any hotel manager seeking restitution. Very bad Idea to make it mandatory. Very good idea to make it voluntary, because filling vacant beds with paying guests that behave is what it’s all about.

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    1. They can’t or won’t keep the areas they pitch their tents clean.. What do you think they will do to those hotel rooms? Until we address some basic social skills they lack – like cleanliness – no one is going to want to help them or let them live anywhere near them.. The homeless are their own worst PR agents..

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    2. yes exactly. Im all for helping people but you cant just go mixing regular civilians and homeless people with mental issues .

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  10. The one man was right, it could help the elderly, students and other people who want the help. I don’t think that hotels should be forced into renting empty rooms to the homeless. There is no perfect answer. But you can’t but all homeless in the same box. After working security in the hotel casino industry, “regular” people caused more problems then the homeless that rented a room for a few nights.

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  11. I’m in LA, the problem is staggeringly horrific, on a human level it is tragically sad and infuriating. While I would love to see something more done, this idea isn’t it. So many of these people in the streets need professional medical help, hotel staff aren’t that. This idea is just downright stupid, you can’t ask hotel staff to be medical professionals and law enforcement, that places an incredible burden and danger to them. I just don’t know what people are thinking anymore and our city/ county and state leaders have really failed on this problem.

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    2. *HOMELESSNESS IS A GOVERNMENT DECISION* I now live in Bulgaria, the poorest country in the EU – we don’t really have homeless people.

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    3. They need to reopen mental institutions and they can live and get the care they need there. That’s what the solution is.

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  12. I can’t even imagine how the Biltmore would handle this, insane, everyone who wants to make hotels take in homeless needs to open up their homes, send a questionnaire to all residents, if they have an extra bedroom they have to take in a homeless person.

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    2. I’m sorry but it was impossible for me not to laugh at your comment! And only because I completely agree with you, but I don’t think I would’ve thought of that! I was picturing schizophrenic Joe checking into the Ritz!

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  13. It may work if certain homeless individuals applied for the room, were assigned a case worker, and drug tested.

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    2. yes Joshua thats a great Idea never thought about that . It keeps them more accountable and its more organized instead of just throwing every random homeless in a hotel . The homeless guy in the video even thinks its a bad idea.

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  14. I thought it was a good idea when I mistakenly thought the headline meant entire vacant buildings. Hotels in business though? No. Motels sure. Not hotels.

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  15. The fundamental issue here is that it is very difficult to get mental health facilities, drug rehab, and homeless shelters constructed anywhere in the city of LA. There are a few facilities that do exist, but constructing new ones? No. Planning boards approve everything that gets built, and when the city itself tries to get these things built, the NIMBYs come out in force and block them. Newsom passed a law that ended single family zoning limits across all of CA, and that will take time to put a dent in housing shortages.. but also they need to pass a similar law for homelessness facilities too.

    This idea of using hotels exists ONLY because they are structures that can house people and planning boards can’t reject them because THEY’RE ALREADY BUILT. There’s plenty of money at the city and county level, even for all 60,000 homeless people, but money isn’t the issue… it’s constructing the facilities that get homeless people off the streets and into either rehab, mental health institution, or housing first + job training. But when you can’t do that, you resort to this. I don’t agree with this hotel proposal idea only because it should instead be replaced with a plan that just BUILDS facilities that address homelessness directly.

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    1. Joe, thanks for that background. You know a lot and should run for office. We need people like you. I live in San Francisco and we have the exact same issues. I have always wondered if the homeless who flock here are more interested in the free stuff or the fact it never gets over 70. It’s mental health facilitates that seem to be what is most needed, and drug rehab. Our street people clearly didn’t originate here. They are either bused in or come on their own.

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    2. Holy crap when I was reading this I was thinking of NIMBY which I heard from George Carlin and then I saw you wrote it too. It’s true, not in my back yard

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  16. Them rooms are going to get destroyed real fast. A good amount of the homeless people are not going to care about keeping the room clean and some may go out of their way to cause damage to the rooms. On top of everything else the bed bugs or lice they may bring with them. Go for it they need a place to stay.

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  18. I live in Los Angeles and just returned home from Arizona, and let me tell you folks they have a lot of homeless encampments too. Republicans use it against California as a talking point against Democrats because they are dying to get a hold of the wealth in this state. Homelessness is in every state.

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  19. They should really think about using taxpayer money to build them small houses in a secluded area for them only and getting some help for the physically impaired and the mentally challenged ones🤔

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  20. I hope that this law focuses on working homeless, families and students essentially those experiencing a short term crisis that need time to get back on their feet. Not fair to anyone to house someone who is mentally Ill or has substance abuse issues where they will not get the help that they need and yes put others in harms way and in uncomfortable situations.
    I don’t think that there is anything that society can do to help with the chronic homeless. The individual needs to initiate the rehabilitation process.

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