Amid the city’s homelessness crisis, some landlords have turned buildings meant for low-cost housing into tourist hotels.
by Robin Urevich, Capital and Main
The Los Angeles Housing Department is proposing to significantly increase staff and double the frequency of inspections of residential hotels in an effort to stop some landlords from renting the low-cost housing to tourists in violation of city law.
The recommendations, detailed in a report to the mayor’s office last month, follow an investigation by Capital & Main and ProPublica that found some residential hotel owners had turned their buildings into boutique hotels and were advertising nightly rentals on travel websites.
Since taking office in December, Mayor Karen Bass has made a major push to tackle the city’s housing and homelessness crisis by providing shelter for people living on the streets and speeding up construction of new affordable housing.
The city has paid less attention to preserving some of its already existing low-cost housing in residential hotels. Some 300 such buildings — which typically consist of basic single rooms, sometimes with shared bathrooms — were protected under a 2008 city ordinance. The law requires landlords to keep the buildings for long-term tenants or replace the units by building new ones or paying into a city housing fund.
Recent Posts
‘Unconstitutional. Unethical. Authoritarian.’ ICE Bars Millions Of Immigrants From Bond Hearings
Take Action Now One watchdog said the new policy “seems like a blatant attempt to stop them from exercising their right to due process.”……
Americans Are Not Nearly Alarmed Enough About Climate Change
Take Action Now Americans still don’t comprehend how imminent, dangerous, and far-reaching the threat is—and journalists are partly to blame.By…
The IRS Is Building A Vast System To Share Millions Of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE
Take Action Now ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security…
Israel’s Sudden Assault On Syria Is Unchecked Aggression
Take Action Now Jerusalem is bombing Damascus and threatening al-Sharaa’s rule, while Washington was hoping to help the nascent government on…