Los Angeles voters will decide if the city will force every hotel to offer vacant rooms to homeless people. You didn’t accidentally find yourself on a satire website, and this is sadly not a joke. Somehow the initiative backed by the hospitality worker union, Unite Here Local 11, gathered enough signatures to get it on the ballot.
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, representing businesses, told CNN:
“It’s insane. It isn’t going to solve the problem,””I wouldn’t want my kids around people that I’m not sure about. I wouldn’t want to be in an elevator with somebody who’s clearly having a mental break,” he says. “The idea that you can intermingle homeless folks with paying, normal guests just doesn’t work out.”
However, Unite Here Local 11 co-president Kurt Petersen thinks differently: “By no means do we think this solves the homelessness crisis. But do hotels have a role to play … of course they do.”
WHAT? Why would hotels have a role to play?
Hotels would need to report to the city’s housing department by 2 pm each day the number of vacant rooms and would be prohibited from discriminating against them.
If voters give the green light, every hotel in town — from a suburban Super 8 Motel to glitzy hostelries like the storied Biltmore — will be required to report vacancies and welcome homeless guests who have a voucher from the city. The hotels would be paid market-rate for the rooms. The measure would also have implications for developers, who would have to replace any housing knocked down to make way for new hotels.
It’s hard to believe this is not a made-up story, but this is where we’re headed in California. Is your state next? Rapid Response Director of the DeSantis campaign, Christina Pushaw, says not Florida.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY