New York’s mayor says half of the city’s hotel rooms are being used to house asylum seekers. Los Angeles said: hold my beer.

In March, voters in LA will consider an ordinance requiring hotels to report their number of vacant rooms each day, and make those rooms available to the homeless (for compensation).

• This was proposed by union UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents workers at area hotels, restaurants, airports, sports arenas, and convention centers.

• Since their petition received enough signatures, it forced a city council vote – to either pass it or refer it to a citizen referendum. They put it on the March 2024 ballot.

Hotels reportedly would have to inform the city about open inventory each day at 2 p.m. But that’s even prior to check-in time at most hotels, and many continue to sell rooms even after midnight. Customers increasingly book hotels last minute, and airport hotels often get surges of demand in the evening during storms or other major airline cancellation events.

How would they verify homelessness and how can I go to the Alila Big Sur or Rosewood Miramar? https://t.co/RmocL3TKxH

— iflyplaces (@iflyplaces) July 6, 2023

Will homeless be put up at the Four Seasons? No matter what you think of someone’s ‘right to housing’ it will inevitably conflict with a property’s brand experience that then diminishes its ability to hold revenue premiums. That not only reduces the income-generating potential of a hotel, but jeopardizes its ability to repay debt. And riskier hotel debt makes it tougher to finance new hotel projects in LA.

Some critics have argued that politicians should have to report vacancies in bedrooms of their homes by 4 p.m. each day and make those rooms available to house the homeless. However, and while the homeless aren’t soldiers, this might run into third amendment problems. (The third amendment has been deemed to have been incorporated against the states by the 14th amendment. While it limits quartering of soldiers in private homes even during wartime, it shows that requiring boarding in someone’s home even in wartime is limited by the constitution.)

Fundamentally, though, for this to make sense you’d need to believe that,

• The problem of homelessness is primarily about lack of a place to sleep and shower
  
• And that there’s no way to voluntarily purchase or provide shelter in the market

I’m not suggesting LA buy hotels and operate them for the homeless, there are probably better operators. But hotels which are geared towards traditional guests aren’t going to have the services many in the homeless population need – either to assist them out of their situation, or to deal with their experiences in the moment.

It seems far better to (1) contract with hotels for blocks of rooms for housing, as an alternative to shelters. Pay a rate that entices some hotel owners, package that with social services, and prepare to deliver rooms in a way that helps the homeless and manages the experiences of other guests at the same time.

Requiring hotels to take in homeless people on a one-off basis, when they happen to have a room available, seems like the least effective way to address the problem of homelessness. The program is based on same-day availability of rooms, so homeless will often be forced to move from hotel to hotel every night, too, which hardly seems the best way to address the problem – for the homeless themselves, or for the city administering the program, since presumably many of those staying won’t just be checking out, hopping in an Uber, and then showing up at the next hotel on their itinerary (and waiting at the pool or bar until check-in time?).

What it does seem to do is require a lot of work for UNITE HERE Local 11 housekeepers, who would need to clean a lot more rooms after these one night stays.