Thread: Not enough hotels for homeless?

'Tell the hotels they are commandeered.' Homeless activists are losing patience with L.A.

LA Times •May 3, 2020

Not long after L.A. County reported more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases on Friday, Davon Brown decided he was done putting himself at risk. So he put on a blazer and went to the Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles.

Joined by activists from Street Watch L.A., he told hotel staff they were interested in renting several rooms but wanted a tour first. The concierge happily obliged, he said, and took the group to room 2221.

Then he revealed his plan: “I’m homeless in Echo Park and I’m not leaving this hotel.”

Brown, who was later arrested and released, told The Times that he had planned to stay until government officials had commandeered enough hotel rooms to house every homeless person in Los Angeles.

“If I stayed outside," he said, "I could die.”

The protest — the latest of several increasingly defiant demonstrations over housing and rent during the pandemic — comes as homeless activists have stepped up their calls for Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Board of Supervisors to use their emergency powers to seize hotels and motels that are all but empty because of fears over the novel coronavirus.

"If you can tell the entire city of Los Angeles that we can shelter in place, then you can tell the hotels they are commandeered and they need to open their doors to the residents of skid row," said Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles attorney Shayla Myers, during a recent federal court hearing in a lawsuit on homelessness.

With about 60,000 homeless residents, Los Angeles County is falling behind on its previously stated goal of moving them into 15,000 hotel rooms. With only about 2,200 rooms leased as of late last week, it could take until October to secure that goal.

L.A. County, participating in an ambitious statewide effort known as Project Roomkey, got off to a quick start by leasing nearly 2,000 rooms in the first two weeks of April. Progress has been slow since then, though. Of the 700 rooms that had been leased in the past two weeks, 500 were removed from the program over issues with insurance and contract terms.

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https://news.yahoo.com/tell-hotels-c...120026824.html

Which part of L.A. belongs in 'Thailand and Asia News'?

People power may be an old and worn cliche, but the homeless are slow to learn that politicians fear it more than the plague.

What this guy did was bold though doomed to end in arrest and release, or at best a few bucks to bugger off, because he was alone. But had he gone in with another 100 homeless people, or organised a number of groups of homeless to peacefully and simultaneously commandeer the empty rooms in several hotels, the authorities would be forced into action, with the only outcome off the table being mass arrest, which leaders and increasingly businesses well know could result in costly embarrassment. All other outcomes are positive.

Anyone remember 144 Picadilly? - the squat was well organised, and peaceful enough until the bailiffs turned up in suits and armed with court papers to evict some 200 squatters. Bit naive but very British, anyway, then it turned into a siege, during which the defenders gave as good as they got, coming to realise they had the backing of the people as underdogs driven by genuine need, and in turn this weapon called civil disobedience would scare the shite out of their leaders.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Which part of L.A. belongs in 'Thailand and Asia News'?

Forgive my poor English, perhaps it should be under

Pacific Islands Travel Forum

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