LA City Council Votes To Purchase 8 Motels To House Homeless

VENICE, CA —The City Council unanimously voted last week to purchase eight motels to help homeless people in Los Angeles move rapidly off the streets.

Funding for the purchases comes from the state's Project Homekey. The eight motels, which are located throughout the city, will provide Los Angeles with a total of 701 units for homeless people.

"Project Homekey is one of the smart, quick and nimble responses to homelessness that I have been advocating for," Councilman Mike Bonin said. "We can't wait years for the construction of new units. We need to get people off the streets immediately, and purchasing motels and hotels is one of the fastest and most efficient ways we can do that."

The units will provide interim housing, laundry services, storage, food services and case management services to individuals experiencing homelessness, with priority going to the local homeless community within the vicinity of each of the motels.

"Each of these beds represents hope for an individual who is living in an encampment and sleeping on the street," Bonin said. "But this is just a drop in the bucket of what we need if we are going to actually address the magnitude of the crisis on our streets. I am eager to work with any hotel or motel owner in any and every neighborhood in my district to rapidly expand this program."

In October, LA received nearly $40 million to create additional homeless housing under the Homekey initiative, part of a project already underway in Venice.

"Confronting and ending homelessness is a team effort, demanding attention, resources and investment from cities, counties and our state," Garcetti said. "Los Angeles has taken full advantage of Homekey, submitting applications for 16 properties which, if approved, will add hundreds of permanent supportive housing units to our stock and allow us to bring more of our most vulnerable neighbors indoors."

The funding will create 243 units in the city, which is part of the state's $147 million of this round to established 1,109 units throughout California.

- City News Service and Patch Editor Nicole Charky contributed to this report.