Los Angeles Extends Project Roomkey Program

A man rides a bicycle in front of a row of homeless tents above a freeway in Los Angeles, on April 7, 2020. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles is extending its “Project Roomkey” program, which temporarily shelters unhoused people in hotels and motels, for another three months.

On March 29, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to authorize $10. 6 million to extend Project Roomkey at the Mayfair Hotel and the L.A. Grand Hotel in Downtown LA, as well as Highland Gardens in Hollywood, until June 30.

Project Roomkey was initiated by the state in March 2020 to provide temporary shelter to the homeless in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its goal was to get 15,000 homeless people off the street and into hotels left empty by lockdowns, and eventually move those people into permanent housing or interim shelter programs.

According to a blog post by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, Project Roomkey has helped about 10,000 people in the past two years, with 4,000 people moved to permanent housing through Project Roomkey and another 3,500 people housed in interim housing shelters.

Last month, Project Roomkey said it is currently operating in seven sites throughout LA with 1,265 total rooms.

Homeless people wait to be checked-in to a hotel room in Venice Beach, Calif., on April 26, 2020. Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images

Although other areas—such as Orange County—ended their participation in Project Roomkey years ago, Los Angeles’s city administrator recommended a program extension after President Joe Biden announced earlier this month that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will fully reimburse local jurisdictions for non-congregate emergency homeless shelters through July 1, 2022.

Even so, some Angelenos said they were frustrated that the city was continuing Project Roomkey at a time when the city is in the process of ending its other pandemic-era policies and programs.

One Angeleno called into the March 29 meeting and questioned the long-term efficacy of using hotels as temporary homeless shelters.

“So, the question is, you’re putting these folks into hotels,” the caller said. “What are you going to do afterward?”

Another caller said the city should have just used the money to focus on interim shelters and permanent housing, rather than paying hotels to temporarily house the homeless.

“Why is it that we can’t find a way to [use] places where there are services, and why was all that money going right to the hotels who are ... providing nothing other than cash money in their pockets to house people temporarily?” the caller asked.

The state initially allocated $800 million in one-time funding to Project Roomkey in 2020, and Governor Gavin Newsom last year extended the funding period for Project Roomkey—and Project Homekey, a newer program that purchases hotels and motels and converts them into temporary shelters for our unhoused neighbors—for $2.75 billion.

A February 2021 report by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office criticized the Newsom administration for proposing Project Homekey’s expansion without first assessing the challenges brought by the initial $800 million allocation.

According to the analysis, Project Roomkey experienced low occupancy rates among leased units, with only 70 percent of the 14,000 hotel rooms rented throughout the state occupied and just 65 percent of the 3,700 hotel rooms available under the program within Los Angeles County rented.

A spokesperson for Project Roomkey and spokespeople for Councilmen Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León did not respond to requests for comment by press deadline.