Another nonsensical policy out of L.A.

The members of the Los Angeles City Council have decided what to do with an initiative ordinance that would require hotels to tell the city how many rooms are vacant every afternoon and then fill the rooms every night with people experiencing homelessness.

The council decided to push it as far away as possible.

The initiative will appear on the March 2024 primary ballot for L.A. voters to decide. The City Council could have adopted the ordinance as written or scheduled a special election but chose to set the measure for the next scheduled election, nearly two years away.

The “Responsible Hotel Ordinance” is the brainchild of a labor union, Unite Here Local 11, which represents hospitality workers. Here's how it would work: Hotel operators would be required to report the number of vacant rooms in their property daily, and the city would make referrals to homelessness service organizations and provide prepaid vouchers for a “fair market rate.” Hotels would be prohibited from refusing to accept the vouchers or discriminating against the homeless guests.

The proponents of the initiative collected signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot and insist that it's needed now that the pandemic-inspired Project Roomkey program is ending. However, Project Roomkey contracted to take over hotels and motels and provided wraparound services such as meals, laundry, counseling from social workers and health services from on-site nurses.

The “Responsible Hotel Ordinance” would include only the room, as if everything else will take care of itself. That's optimistic. At Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, Project Roomkey guests protested and refused to leave at the end of the program. At the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys, eight Project Roomkey guests died in their rooms.

In addition to the homeless housing requirement, the measure would require hotels to get a police permit in order to operate. The initiative also makes it harder to get approval for a major hotel development project.

Unions are entitled to bargain aggressively for better contract terms for the members, but seeking to use the force of government to harass and harm the companies across the bargaining table is an abuse of the initiative process. Voters should say no.