LA will destroy its tourism industry if it turns its hotels into homeless shelters

If Los Angeles voters approve the March 2024 ballot measure to force hotels to house homeless people next to paying guests, it will put hotel employees in serious danger and eradicate thousands of jobs as LA hotel bookings and tourism grind to a halt.

You don’t need a crystal ball to see this one.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city experimented with housing homeless people in hotels. Thousands of homeless people checked into hotels on the taxpayers’ dime, and hotel employees were forced to deal with the drugs and violence these guests brought with them.

Aside from putting hotel staff at risk, the program led to extensive property damage — $11.5 million in damage at the Mayfair Hotel alone. The emails that went back and forth at the Mayfair tell the entire story.

“Participant in 1516 Threatened staff, Security, destroyed property. Screamed. Yelled cursed. Everything went wrong with her,” reads one message that was later featured in the Los Angeles Times.

“Around 10 am a male in 1526 assaulted another resident in Room 726,” one security guard wrote in another message. “The situation was quickly broken up and 1526 was escorted out by police.”

Would you like to be in the hotel with your children the next time this happens? Most Americans would not. A Morning Consult poll commissioned by the American Hotel & Lodging Association shows how the vast majority of Americans would likely steer clear of LA and its hotels if the homeless-in-hotels ballot measure passes.

The poll showed that 72 percent of U.S. adults would be deterred from booking a room in Los Angeles if the policy takes effect. Some 70 percent of both business and leisure travelers would be deterred from even visiting the city if this were to become policy.

The adverse reaction is even stronger among people who have visited Los Angeles before. More than 80 percent of that group said that the homeless-in-hotels policy would deter them from booking a hotel room in the city.

This couldn’t be clearer. If the ballot measure passes and LA’s hotel and tourism industries die, no one will be able to say they couldn’t see it coming.

We are sympathetic to the plight of LA’s homeless population, which needs professional help from medical and social workers. But putting homeless people in expensive luxury hotels without providing support services does nothing to solve the city’s homelessness problem.

LA needs a serious solution for dealing with homelessness, and the vast majority of people agree. The Morning Consult poll showed a whopping 75 percent of Americans said they are worried that forcing hotels to house homeless people next to paying guests ignores the root causes of homelessness. And 74 percent said they worry that the policy fails to address the long-term housing needs of homeless people.

It’s easy to see what LA’s future would look like if the homeless-in-hotels ballot measure passes. But one thing we can’t predict is what the leaders of the hotel workers union backing this measure are thinking. The leaders of Unite Here, a labor union representing LA-area hotel workers, are the ones that put this dangerous policy on the ballot in the first place.

Why would Unite Here fight to put its own members in danger? The union’s members are already voicing safety concerns about serving homeless hotel guests, so why is the union fighting to force all LA hotel employees to do so? How does Unite Here respond to criticism that if its plan passes, eventually there will be no hotels — and no hotel workers — left in LA?

The union’s bosses have refused so far to answer.

According to the City of Los Angeles Initiative, Referendum & Recall Petition Handbook, Unite Here has until Dec. 8 to withdraw the measure. So perhaps the most important question facing the union is whether it will pull this homeless-in-hotels policy from the ballot.

This would spare the city from repeating the same failed homelessness experiment, ensure the safety of hotel workers and guests, and protect LA’s critical tourism industry.

So far, however, the bosses at Unite Here have refused to take this commonsense step. If they don’t, safety concerns will drive hotel employees to other industries and tourists to other cities.

The future will be one without hotels and hotel workers — in LA or any other city where Unite Here tries to force hotels to house homeless people.

Chip Rogers (@ChipAHLA) is president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association and president of Angelenos Protecting Hospitality.