Los Angeles Voters To Decide Whether Hotels Should Accommodate Homeless People At Night

• The city of Los Angeles in America is plagued with numerous homeless people while a lot of hotel rooms are vacant at night
• Voters are going to the polls to decide whether hotels should accommodate homeless people if they have vacant rooms
• The Union in charge of Los Angeles' hospitality workers claim that they have gathered enough signatures to have a vote on March 2024 to decide on the fate of homeless people

Los Angeles has a record number of homeless people. According to CNN, over 60,000 homeless people would not have a decent place to lay their heads on an average night. Meanwhile, more than 20,000 rooms in hotels would remain empty. Los Angeles residents will take to the polls in March 2024 to decide whether homeless people should be allowed to rent hotel rooms.

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The Los Angeles City Council voted to put the legislation on the ballot, rejecting a proposal that would have avoided the public vote and implemented the rule right away.

The council hall was crowded with hotel owners and operators, many of whom argued that the measure would unfairly tax hotels and harm their capacity to conduct business. Some hotel employees voiced favour of the proposal, while others were against it.

According to the idea, hotels would have to notify the city's housing department regularly of the number of empty rooms they had. The department would then provide recommendations and use pre-paid vouchers to pay the hotel a "fair market rate" to accommodate homeless people.

Speaking to CNN, one resident said:

I don't believe that's a wise move. You know, a lot of individuals go untreated for mental illness, and some of them do harm to these buildings.

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In Los Angeles, more than 14,000 homeless people suffer from major mental diseases, and more than 15,000 struggle with drug abuse, according to a 2020 report from the homeless services agency.

Many hotel owners and operators argued that giving out their rooms to homeless people was bad. They asserted that the safety of their paying customers was paramount to them.

Ongos Valley: Namibia's Largest Housing Project to Provide Accommodation for 100,000 Citizens, Netizens React

In an earlier story, YEN.com.gh wrote about Namibia embarking on a housing project to provide accommodations for 100,000 citizens. Namibia is building the Ongos Valley, a residential mixed-use community, its greatest housing construction project.

More than 20 schools, shopping centres, gas stations, and other businesses will be part of the project. In addition, every home in the project will have access to fibre-optic internet and get 1GB of free data each month for five years.

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Source: YEN.com.gh