It’s always some sort of Virtue Signaling idea which never takes into account the consequences, which are easy to figure out for the non-Woke, but, impossible for the Woke. Or, they really just do not give a flying shit
On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council will consider passing an ordinance that would house homeless people in empty hotel rooms. If it passes, every hotel in Los Angeles will have to report their vacancies.
According to the measure, “Each hotel shall communicate to the Department or its designee, in a form that the Department prescribes, by 2 p.m. each day the number of available rooms at the hotel for that night.”
“It’s crazy,” said Ray Patel, the president of the Northeast Los Angeles Hotel Owners Association.
Patel said members of the association are worried.
“I can’t screen who ends up in my hotel rooms?” he said. “How do I protect my other customers and my staff?”
Sure, some homeless are just down on their luck, especially in the hyper-expensive state of the People’s Republik Of California. Some aren’t. What happens when they refuse to leave the hotel rooms? What if they trash them? Seeing as how things are going in L.A., will the cops be allowed to kick them out?Doubtful. And then there will be more and more open rooms, because more and more people will refuse to go to L.A., not wanting to be in the same hotel as possibly a smelly, deranged, homeless, of which there are more than a few in L.A.
Members of Unite Here Local 11, who are behind the initiative, say they have already gathered 126,000 signatures in favor. Council members could decide to put it on the ballot if they don’t approve it outright.
Maria Hernandez, communications director of Unite Here Local 11 said this picks up where the phased-out Project Room Key left off. The Los Angeles initiative paid hotels to house homeless individuals during the pandemic but did not force them. This initiative includes language indicating that hotels not accepting the vouchers could be sued.
Do any of those members of Unite Here have a stake in any of the hotels? Are they willing to put up any homeless at their own domiciles? The “movement” is apparently comprised of hotel and restaurant workers. Will those hotel workers enjoy cleaning up after and dealing with the homeless? How about reduced hours and layoffs due to reduced bookings? How about the members of the city council? It’s really easy to require Other People to do something you won’t do, right?
Socialism is always about the theft.
Our esteemed host noted:
Here’s the operative problem:
The proposed legislation would deprive property owners of their property without due process of law!
Some on the left will claim that the homeless are all good, noble people, just down on their luck for a bit, but if just one out of every ten homeless are mentally ill, or violent, or criminals, if just one out of ten trash the hotel room, that can still be thousands and thousands of dollars.
The homeless rarely have an opportunity to bathe, so this ordinance would send dozens, perhaps hundreds of people reeking of BO — body odor, not Barack Obama — into places which pride themselves on keeping things clean and fresh, to serve their customers; this will cost them paying customers. Even though the homeless would have the opportunity to shower once ensconced in the stolen hotel rooms, hotel rooms don’t have laundry facilities, and their clothing, both what they were wearing and any extra they might be hauling around, would still stay street-filthy. Some might well be infested with lice.
The study was from France, but the cited reference is from the US National Institutes for Health. We’re going to infest hotels with lice?
The state paid hotel room project was tried locally. Took the hotel owners 3 weeks to remove the noble yet “down on their luck” vermin from the property. Meanwhile they were trashing the room, shitting in 5 gallon buckets and stacking them in the corner. The plumbing was fully functional BTW. around $50k in damage was done to the hotel.
Way back when I was in the gummint business, I watched a number of these schemes go down in flames. The ones that worked were usually church affiliated/operated and always not residential. Soup kitchens, mail-boxes, counseling, health services, food banks, and the like. Donated to and helped with several. Charity-run residential usually could survive for a while. Gummint, on the other hand, uses a ‘one size fits all’ approach along with ‘we know better’ and always, other people’s money.
Homelessness is a situation with many root causes. PTSD, mental illness, substance abuse, criminal history, etc. are some of the issues, not ‘just down on their luck’. I don’t think it will ever be ‘solved’, but caring people with dedication and thick skins can help many of the homeless to live a little better.
Gummint simply can’t solve the problem.