The Mayfair Hotel in Los Angeles, California participated for two years in the federal initiative, Project Roomkey, that turns California hotels into temporary homeless shelters.
A decision that resulted in $11.5 million in damages to their facility, paid for by taxpayers, which includes shattered windows, vandalized bathrooms, destruction of carpet, drug use, fights and more.
The Los Angeles Times shared reports from social workers assigned to the hotel:
“Participant in 1516 Threatened staff, Security, destroyed property. Screamed. Yelled cursed. Everything went wrong with her. Inside and outside the building,” one social worker wrote. Another recounted how “a male in 1526 assaulted another resident in Room 726.”
Those and other incidents were described in emails sent to the city of Los Angeles during the final six months of the Mayfair’s participation in Project Roomkey, a federally funded initiative that transformed hotels across L.A. into temporary homeless shelters. The emails, copies of which were obtained by The Times, depict a staff of security guards, nurses, hotel managers and others grappling with drug overdoses, property damage and what they characterized as aggressive and even violent behavior.
“Around 10 am a male in 1526 assaulted another resident in Room 726,” a security guard wrote in March 2022. “The situation was quickly broken up and 1526 was escorted out by police.”
According to the Times, the city quietly paid the hotel’s owner $11.5 million thus far to resolve the damage claims.
Plans to make the temporary move to homeless housing permanent are receiving push back from area residents.
“I don’t want them back in this neighborhood,” neighbor Darlene Adderison told the Times. “I want my peace. I am 66 years old and I want my peace.”
Three months ago, the Los Angeles Times called the Mayfair Hotel in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles “a 15-story hotel [that] could help L.A.’s mayor fight homelessness.” https://t.co/F0gQnxzNjL
— KTLA (@KTLA) August 16, 2023
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