LA County commits $10M to landlords for homeless housing program

Property owners would rent entire buildings to tenants with vouchers

(Getty, iStock)
(Getty, iStock)

Los Angeles County committed $10 million to a program that would provide incentives to landlords who allocate entire buildings to house homeless people with vouchers.

The owners of 10 buildings with 373 units total have expressed interest in the program, whose funding would be spread across five years, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

The county funds would cover the cost of property management, repairs, maintenance and vacancies. Landlords have pushed the county to cover those expenses, but until now the county has been hesitant to commit to that.

“We’ve learned that many L.A. property owners are interested in a ‘double bottom line,’” County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said. “They like receiving rent reliably on the first of the month as well as other guarantees we offer, such as covering the cost of property management and building repairs.”

The county, along with the state and the city of L.A., rented thousands of hotel rooms during the pandemic to house vulnerable people through Project Roomkey, but there are concerns that hotel owners will stop participating in the program as more people are vaccinated.

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That could put people back on the street and governments are taking steps to house people. The state purchased at least 94 hotels statewide to convert into more permanent housing, in a program it calls Project Homekey.

The federal government committed 100 percent funding for that hotel-buying program through the end of September.

Earlier this month, the L.A. City Council voted to explore means to buy multifamily properties with affordable housing covenants that were expiring, in an effort to prevent displacement.

[LADN] — Dennis Lynch