Los Angeles City Council approves $100M purchase
By Toi Creel
The City of Los Angeles is spending over $100 million to convert 10 hotels and a handful of apartment buildings into interim housing.
The purchasing of a total of 10 hotels will cost $105 million. $68 million will be provided via grants through California’s Project Homekey program. The rest of the cost will come from $37 million in city matching funds.
The hotels will provide housing for up to 536 people at full operation. In addition to the 10 hotels, in a separate purchase, the City’s Housing Authority is also looking to acquire five more apartment and hotel buildings to create 214 more units. The funding will be split —$39.7 million from Project Homekey and $30 million from city funds.
The 10 hotels will be located across Los Angeles in the areas of Harbor Gateway, Chatsworth, West Adams, Exposition park, Reseda, North Hills, Westlake, and El Sereno.
- Howard Johnson – 7432 Reseda Boulevard;
- Panorama Motel – 8209 Sepulveda Boulevard;
- Best Inn – 4701 W. Adams Boulevard;
- EC Motel – 3501 S. Western Avenue;
- Econo Motor Inn – 8647 Sepulveda Boulevard;
- Hotel Solaire – 1710 7th Street;
- The Nest – 253 S. Hoover Street;
- Travelodge (Devonshire) – 21603 Devonshire Street.
- Titta’s Inn – 5333 Huntington Drive North;
- Travelodge (Normandie) – 18606 Normandie Avenue
The Solaire and Howard Johnson hotels are being used for the Project Roomkey program. The rest are mostly vacant and are expected to open within the next month.
The purchase by the City of Los Angeles comes just after the County of Los Angeles purchased eight motels using $60.7 million would in Project Homekey funding and roughly $14.7 million in federal CARES Act funds.