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Unite Here Local 11 seeks to reduce the problem of homeless people by housing them in hotels next to paying guests

Parriva Parriva · US

 

A proposal by Unite Here Local 11 to place homeless people in Los Angeles hotels is drawing criticism from a leading trade group in the hotel and lodging industry over its potential impact on employee safety.

A ballot initiative put forward by Unite Here Local 11, a hotel workers' union, would require hotels in Los Angeles to report the number of vacant rooms each day along with average daily rates to city hall. The Los Angeles Housing Department would then provide homeless people with vouchers to use at hotels, which would be prohibited from discriminating against those participating in the program.

"Los Angeles has seen a massive increase in new hotel development in recent years at the same time as the number of people experiencing homelessness has skyrocketed and the City's affordable housing crisis has grown," the union wrote on its website. "Hotels are frequently proposed for land that is equally suitable for housing development and thus crowd out sites that could be used to help alleviate the City's need for affordable housing."

But a recent survey mentions that more than seven in ten Americans would be deterred from booking a hotel room in Los Angeles if hotels there are forced to house homeless people next to paying guests. That’s according to a new national poll commissioned by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and conducted by Morning Consult.

Los Angeles residents are set to vote in March 2024 on whether to require all local hotels to house homeless people next to paying guests as part of a ballot initiative proposed by Unite Here, a labor union that represents LA-area hotel workers.

If Unite Here's ballot initiative passes, LA would become the first city in American history to force hotels to house homeless people next to paying guests. The AHLA poll highlights the dramatic deterrent a policy like this would be to tourism and hotel stays in the city.

The poll of 2,203 U.S. adults was conducted Sept. 18-20, 2023. Key findings include:

-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. That number jumps to 83% among those who have previously visited LA.

-71% of Americans said they would be deterred from visiting Los Angeles for leisure or vacation if hotels there are forced to house homeless people next to paying guests. That number jumps to 80% among those who have previously visited LA.

-70% of Americans said they would be deterred from attending a business conference in Los Angeles if hotels there are forced to house homeless people next to paying guests. That number jumps to 79% among those who have previously visited LA.

-Equal numbers of Americans (71%) said they are concerned about the safety risks to hotel staff and guests caused by forcing all LA hotels to house homeless people next to paying guests.

-71% of Americans said they are concerned about hotels reducing the amount or quality of amenities if the city forces all LA hotels to house homeless people next to paying guests.

-70% of Americans said they are concerned about the risk of damage to hotel property caused by forcing all LA hotels to house homeless people next to paying guests.

-75% of Americans said they are concerned that forcing all LA hotels to house homeless people next to paying guests ignores the root causes of homelessness, and 74% said they are concerned that the policy fails to address long-term housing needs of homeless people.

According to the City of Los Angeles Initiative, Referendum & Recall Petition Handbook (page7), Unite Here can withdraw the ballot initiative as long as it does so 88 days before the election, or Dec. 8.

So far, however, Unite Here has refused to take this commonsense step. Instead, Unite Here leaders have made their insistence on housing homeless people in hotels next to paying guests a focal point in collective bargaining negotiations with LA-area hotels. Unite Here has even demanded that hotels support the dangerous practice.

Additionally, the Los Angeles City Council has yet to hold a hearing regarding the devastating economic impacts this policy would have on the city. 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.

“We are experiencing a homelessness crisis in California,” María Elena Durazo

October 5, 2023
Letter to

THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES

DO ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:

LOS ANGELES RESPONSIBLE HOTEL ORDINANCE

Section 1. Purpose and Intent

The City of Los Angeles is experiencing a dramatic increase in hotel development, ranking second in the nation in the number of new hotel rooms in its pipeline and seeing occupancy rates return to their pre-pandemic levels. While hotels can bring good jobs and add to the City’s economic base, many hotels burden City

social services and exacerbate the City’s housing crisis. The Los Angeles Responsible Hotel Ordinance (the “Ordinance”) will help ensure that new hotels do not contribute to the City’s lack of affordable housing, burden the City’s social services, or result in undue transportation and traffic impacts. New and already existing hotels will be required to adhere to responsible business practices, including making guest rooms available to unhoused Angelenos on a non-discriminatory basis, and be subject to City oversight.

The Ordinance requires that when the City Planning Commission, or the City Council on appeal, reviews a conditional use permit for a major hotel development, they consider whether there is sufficient demand for the hotel, whether the hotel would unduly burden the demand for affordable housing and social services in the City, including as a result of the hotel’s employment practices; whether the hotel has a plan to reduce vehicle trips and vehicle miles, including by hiring local residents; and whether the hotel will displace community-serving small businesses. The Ordinance also requires new hotels that displace housing to create guest rooms for City visitors replace that housing on a one-for-one basis.

One consequence of the City’s lack of affordable housing is its unprecedented

homelessness crisis. At least 41,290 people experienced homelessness at any given time during 2020 in the City according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

While the 2021 count was cancelled due to COVID, the number of people experiencing homelessness has increased by double-digit percentages in recent years, a trend that can be expected to continue through the COVID pandemic. While tens of thousands of unhoused Angelenos can be found each night sleeping on the streets or in parks, vehicles, or structures not fit for human habitation, large numbers of hotel guest rooms across the City go unoccupied every night. Vacant hotel rooms offer an underutilized opportunity to address the problem of homelessness.

This Ordinance creates a program under which the City’s Housing Department will identify hotels with vacant rooms, refer unhoused families and individuals to such hotels, and provide payment at a fair market rate for their lodging.

The Ordinance prohibits hotels from discriminating against unhoused people for their participation in this program, or the fact or perception, that they are unhoused. It requires hotels to report the number of vacant hotel rooms and other information to the Housing Department on a regular basis.

The Ordinance creates a more rigorous permitting regime to ensure that hotels

are operated in a responsible manner. While the City has adopted special police permit requirements for dealers of a variety of types of merchandise, businesses that provide amusements and exhibitions, and numerous trades and occupations, there currently exist no special police permit requirements for hotels. However, as sites where the traveling public congregates in large numbers, hotels have a unique and important role to play in ensuring public health and safety and in mitigating harmful and illegal conduct such as trafficking of persons and the spread of communicable diseases.

Wage theft and other violations of state and local employment laws are a large and growing problem in Los Angeles, with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Wage Theft Task Force estimating that some 30% of workers in the County are paid less than the legal minimum wage and that wage theft deprives workers of over $26 million per week in Los Angeles. Hotels employ large numbers of lower- wage workers, whom unscrupulous employers especially target for wage theft and other employment-law violations, making review of employment-law violations as part of the hotel licensure process critical.

This Ordinance adds to the City’s existing police permit regime a requirement that hotel owners and operators obtain a permit from the Board of Police Commissioners and sets out standards, the violation of which, may result in the denial of a permit or disciplinary action against hotel owners or operators.

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