A Los Angeles hotel suffered $11.5 million in damage while the city was using it as a government-sponsored homeless shelter.
The city included the Mayfair Hotel in Project Roomkey, a federal initiative to convert California hotels into temporary shelters for the homeless. At the end of the hotel’s time in the program, the city quietly paid the hotel owner to cover the residents’ damages. Social workers attached to the hotel lamented his condition in emails obtained by Los Angeles time
“Participating in 1516 Threatened staff, Security, destroyed property. Screamed. Screamed curses. Everything went wrong with her. In and out of the building,” wrote a social worker. Another described how “a man in 1526 assaulted another resident in room 726.”
The Mayfair represents the latest instance in which state and local governments have paid a huge price to address California’s homelessness crisis.
San Diego in April asked for state funds to buy three hotels at $383,000 per room to house their homeless population. The city saw homelessness hit record highs in the months leading up to the purchase.
Between September 2021 and June 2022, the city of Berkeley was only removed 75 tons of trash, drug paraphernalia and human excrement from homeless camps. With an estimated 535 people living on the streets at the time, the city disposed of approximately 500 pounds of waste per homeless person per year.
Experts have attributed the state’s struggles with homelessness to the so-called Housing first principle, which became the law of the land for the state’s homeless policy in 2016. The practice focuses almost exclusively on providing subsidized housing to the homeless without requiring them to undergo treatment for substance abuse or mental illness.
In July, President Joe Biden’s Department of Housing and Urban Development announced its $3 billion investment in Housing First programs across the country.
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