LA City Council Moves Forward On Hotel Housing Ordinance

The Los Angeles City Council advanced a hotel initiative that will require developers to replace any housing lost to hotel construction in a 14-0 vote Tuesday.

The ordinance replaces a ballot measure that would have required hotels to make vacant rooms available to unhoused people. Instead, it will require the city to consider how new hotel developments will affect housing, childcare, public transit and small businesses in the area.

Council President Paul Krekorian, who helped broker a deal between the hotel workers union, Unite Here Local 11, and the hotels said the ordinance will "empower community input for consideration of new hotel development and expansion and its impact on communities. It would strengthen public oversight over short-term rentals, hotels and other properties that create public nuisances."

In exchange, LA's hotel industry will not be required to tell the city's housing department about their vacant rooms.

The housing initiative was one of the sticking points between the Coordinated Bargaining group, which represents the hotels, and Unite Here Local 11.

The union's co-president Kurt Petersen said negotiations have been about two things: housing and a living wage.

"Will L.A. only belong to the rich?" he said at Tuesday's council meeting. "Or will those who act, who teach, who clean, who cook those who make our city prosperous and beautiful, will they be able to afford to live in Los Angeles?"

Hotel workers have engaged in rolling strikes since the July 4 weekend when their contracts expired. It's unclear how this new ordinance was reached or if it affects the negotiations going forward.

Only three hotels have reached deals with the union: the Westin Bonaventure, the Biltmore in downtown L.A. and Loews Hollywood.

In a statement last week, Krekorian said the affordable housing shortage in the city does much more than driving the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles

“It hurts everyone who’s looking for a home in Los Angeles," he said. "The hospitality industry is a vital and necessary component of our local economy, and we need hotels to welcome the thousands of visitors we receive, but new hotel construction cannot come at the cost of our current housing stock.”

A few things must happen before the proposal becomes law. Unite Here Local 11 has to withdraw the original ordinance and the city attorney must review and send the proposal for city council approval by early December. Councilmember Bob Blumenfield was absent during Tuesday's vote.