To solve its worst-in-the-nation homelessness problem, Los Angeles is considering the novel and legally suspect approach of commandeering empty hotel rooms as shelter housing.
Come March, city voters will decide on a ballot initiative backed by the hotel union Unite Here requiring hotels to report their empty rooms to the city's housing department. The homeless would then be given vouchers to rent the vacant rooms. Hotels don't have to leave those rooms available; they just can't refuse service to homeless customers paying with housing vouchers.
