The Times podcast: Why hotel rooms for L.A.'s homeless sit empty

Helen Li
·1 min read
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LOS ANGELES CA MAY 31, 2016 -- A regular room at Cecil Hotel. Simon Baron Development aims to transform the Cecil Hotel into a boutique hotel and micro rental units aimed at young adults. Simon Baron plans to start construction on a $100 million renovation of the Cecil in Spring 2017. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A room at the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The historic Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles reopened in 2021 with a commitment to make it easy for low-income and unhoused people to occupy its rooms. So why have so few people taken advantage of this offer?

Today, we examine why this well-intentioned and funded solution to L.A.'s homelessness crisis is having trouble fulfilling its original vision. Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times Fast Break reporter Jaimie Ding

More reading:

A year after opening 600 rooms to L.A.’s unhoused, the Cecil Hotel is still mostly empty. Here’s why

LA Times Today: A year after opening 600 rooms to L.A.’s unhoused, the Cecil Hotel is still mostly empty

Once a den of prostitution and drugs, the Cecil Hotel in downtown L.A. is set to undergo a $100-million renovation

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.