LOS ANGELES — LA City councilmembers will soon vote on whether the city should purchase a 15-story hotel in Westlake to house people who are on Skid Row.
Mayor Karen Bass is pushing to purchase the Mayfair Hotel to expand her Inside Safe Initiative. She’s also eyeing the Mayfair as a good location to house residents from Skid Row over the next two years.
The city and county are currently dealing with a lawsuit from the LA Alliance for Human Rights, which is pushing city and county leaders to do more to address the homelessness crisis on Skid Row.
They have a goal to shelter at least 2,000 Skid Row residents across a handful of hotels in Los Angeles.
Some Westlake residents, however, say the mayor’s plan is only going to make their neighborhoods harder to live in.
Elaine Alaniz, who has lived in Westlake for eight years, said there are homeless encampments on nearly every other street near her apartment.
Alaniz sees open drug use in alleyways and often has to walk her two dogs along sidewalks that are littered with trash.
“It breaks my heart seeing mothers having to carry their children and walk their children through a whole bunch of people shooting up heroin,” Alaniz said.
During the pandemic, Alaniz saw the homelessness crisis grow, right outside her doorstep. Her concern now is that the city’s purchase of the Mayfair Hotel is only going to make the crisis in her neighborhood worse.
The 294-room hotel was part of Project Roomkey, an effort to provide shelter for the unhoused during the pandemic. Alaniz said in that time, fires broke out at the hotel, there was rampant drug use, and even violence.
“I had a neighbor of mine get murdered, walking on the street talking to his wife on the phone, a homeless person approached him, stabbed him with an ice pick, it actually made the news,” she said.
In a conversation with Spectrum News, Mayor Bass said she is aware of the community’s concerns but said the city has a responsibility to get people inside, first, then address drug addiction and mental health issues through services, once they are indoors.
“One thing that I can promise the residents of the neighborhood is that people will not just be thrown into this building without services. There will be 24-hour security and we are not going to put up with contributing with the problems of the neighborhood. The entire goal here is to be a part of the solution,” Mayor Bass said.
As far as services, the Weingart Center, a nonprofit homeless services provider, that’s had success in Westlake before, will head the effort.
Meantime, Alaniz said she doesn’t want people thinking that her community isn’t willing to shoulder this responsibility.
She just said many of the hard-working migrants and vendors and low-income residents here have already been helping with the homeless crisis and now, they deserve better.