L.A. City Needs A Real And Meaningful Affordable Housing Policy (And Residential Hotels Are A SCAM!)

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I got a real earful from the General Manager of one of the hotels, who showed up at City Hall yesterday for the public hearing on residential hotels downtown, and a moritorium that would require hotel owners to replace each unit of affordable housing with another unit, somewhere else -- if they convert the unit to daily rooms or something else.

HERE'S THE BAMBOOZLE: The hotel GM I spoke with said his hotel has about 600 units. Some are earmarked for long-term, affordable residential units (some people living there for 20-30 years); mixed with daily hotel rooms for tourists.

The owner wants to re-furbish the old downtown hotel; by taking two (sucky) affordable residential units and turning them into a nice hotel room to rent for about $120 a night. Which would not only provide a decent priced hotel for people in the heart of Downtown (which is badly needed)...but will kick money back to the city in the form of the bed tax.

BUT, the City has deemed the hotel 100% residential and will not allow hotel to move ahead with the plans for the $120 affordable daily rooms because, "The city only cares about the 'quantity' of units, not 'quality' of housing. We (the hotel) are forced to be all residential because the City wants to keep from losing numbers (of affordable housing).