The Los Angeles city council has voted to remove a union-submitted initiative from the March 2024 ballot that would require L.A.-based hotels to house unhoused individuals next to paying guests, according to local reports.
According to reports, the L.A. City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to remove the ballot initiative in favor of a "compromise ordinance" that would allow for a voluntary homeless-in-hotels program in the city.
Prior to the compromise and vote to withdraw, Unite Here Local 11—a union representing hospitality workers—submitted a ballot initiative that would require existing and new L.A.-based hotels to report vacant rooms to the city daily and accept unhouse individuals through a voucher system to be housed in unsold rooms alongside hotel guests.
In response to the proposal, the American Hotel & Lodging Association funded a campaign to defeat the initiative dubbed Angelenos Protecting Hospitality in October. APH campaign president and AHLA president and CEO Chip Rogers called the initiative an "absolute failure" that would put "hotel guests and hotel employees in physical danger."
The Compromise
The L.A. city council and Unite Here agreed to a deal to remove the original ballot in favor of the compromise ordinance last month, according to the Los Angeles Times. Following this agreement, Unite Here officially requested the initiative's removal from the March 2024 ballot last week, local publications reported.
As part of the deal to withdraw the homeless-in-hotels ballot measure, the L.A. City Council has approved a compromise ordinance, according to AHLA. The new ordinance allows hotels to opt into this "Voluntary Housing Program," and renew participation, according to the ordinance.
According to the ordinance, hotels will be able to register with the city and provide "contracting and negotiated per-room-rates" to participate in the Voluntary Housing Program. Program participation will be at the "sole discretion of the hotel," ordinance authors wrote. The Los Angeles Housing Department, "on an ongoing basis," according to the compromise, will identify hotels within the program and direct unhoused individuals and families to participating hotels.
Additionally, the Los Angeles Housing Department will work with "non-profit organizations with a demonstrated record of working with unhoused populations to assist in administering the program," according to the ordinance. For hotels that opt into the program, it will be "unlawful" to refuse service to individuals "seeking accommodations using the program," according to the ordinance, which was signed Nov. 30 and will take effect July 1, 2024.
"With this ordinance, we have done more to protect housing than any single contract demand would have done," Unite Here Local 11 co-president Kurt Petersen said in a statement, adding that the "fight for a living wage continues."
Industry Response
"We are grateful to Mayor 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," California Hotel & Lodging Association president and CEO Lynn Mohrfeld said in a statement.
Rogers echoed these sentiments, adding in a statement that "Unite Here created an atmosphere of dangerous uncertainty for hotel employees, hoteliers and the City of Los Angeles by clinging to a proposal virtually everyone thinks is outrageous – forcing hotels to house homeless people next to paying guests," with the original proposal.
The city's Tuesday vote was an "irresponsible demand was just a bargaining chip, rather than a serious attempt to address the homelessness crisis gripping L.A.," Rogers said in the statement.