Item 5b on the agenda, unless tabled, will come to a vote the night before the June 7th primary in which Council member Lindsey Horvath’ claims that she cleaned up 80% of the homeless population in West Hollywood.
The proposal will cost 4.2 million for the facility plus expenses and renovations, plus staffing and create a homeless transition facility in the middle of West Hollywood between both its Santa Monica nightlife district and just south of the Sunset Strip.
The 23-unit motel will be narrowed to 20 units with the other rooms used for staff. The homeless resident will be ‘in transition’ Food will be offered to these residents. Approximately three permanent staffers will be on premises to oversee the Holloway homeless facility.
The side-deal, made though an agent, offered the owner of the Holloway Motel a bonus that would allow them to keep the billboard and grant entitlements for an equal or larger billboard. This opportunity would not be afforded anybody else who purchased the building along with the billboard attached.
AJ of Barneys Beanery was not pleased with the City Hall approach and its side deal. “There is no transparency in this inside deal that puts a homeless transition camp in the heart of center city.” he said at a Chamber business update meeting in early May.
Conditions of the purchase include:
Purchase of the property requires the City to approve a location for a new billboard structure of at least equal size and visibility of the current billboard. An easement (“Billboard Easement”) will be created for the billboard structure
which the ownership will be retained by the seller. As a part of the escrow agreement and escrow period, the City and
property owner will work on executing a development agreement for the revised billboard. Escrow will not close until the development agreement has been executed.
The purchase agreement expressly states the pre-arranged agreement that could not be offered to a private buyer.
“Seller desires entitlements for a new, static two sided billboard, not to exceed 1,500 sf per side (the “New Billboard”), which New Billboard will be located on the Billboard Easement Area. Buyer and Seller shall jointly pursue the entitlements and approvals necessary (i) to approve the Easement Agreement and the Billboard Easement Area
(the “Easement Approvals”), and (ii) to permit the construction and operation of the New
Billboard on the Billboard Easement Area (the “New Billboard Entitlements”). The New
Billboard Entitlements shall include a Development Agreement between Buyer and Seller (the
“Development Agreement”), which Development Agreement shall be negotiated during the
Entitlement Period (as defined in Section 1.5.3). To facilitate the issuance of the Easement
Approvals and the New Billboard Entitlements, during the Due Diligence Period, Buyer and Seller
shall use good-faith efforts to negotiate and finalize a revenue sharing agreement (the “Revenue
Sharing Agreement”) which gives Buyer, for a term of 30 years, 30% of the difference between
X and Y, where X equals the annual gross revenue actually received by Seller for the New
Billboard (without regard to or deduction for any expenses or costs to build, construct or maintain
the New Billboard), and Y equals $55,000.
Besides the purchase price the City of West Hollywood plans to spend between 1-2 million dollars to renovate the premises. This purchase comes at the same time of Council discussions about de-funding the West Hollywood Sheriff by approximately $3 million and re-tooling those dollars for homeless outreach services.
Is the City trading Public Safety to benefit 20 homeless individuals? Are there other ways to find 20 rooms or more within our City to accommodate transitional housing?
Send your thoughts to council@weho.org
if you have a free market system that’s trying to get rich, what happens is that it’s a very irritating system because the poverty that causes so much misery is also causing the growth that makes everybody get out of poverty. In other words, to some extent, it’s a self-correcting system.
If poverty was comfortable and cozy nobody would care to want to make money! It’s suppose to be awful to motivate to do better!
I think the following may add some proper reasons as to not have a HOMELESS refuge…. Here is some news NOT reported. From Canyon News a cut and paste. MELROSE—Saturday, June 18th, West Hollywood deputies arrived at Melrose Ave & Westmount Drive at 6:27am after they received a call from a woman who reported that she was assaulted by a black, transient female with an unknown deadly weapon. The victim was walking her dog in the area when she was approached by the suspect, who accused her of stealing her property before she slashed her arms with an unknown weapon… Read more »
I remember when WeHo was not full of NIMBY’s. Most of the people commenting people here should be ashamed to call yourselves humans. For once, think about someone other than your own selfish selves!! Jeesh!!
I see nothing about what the requirements for the “transitioning” people will be? Will they be required to work a minimum of a 40 hour work week? Will they be required to keep the place clean? Or are we just basically giving 400k to to 20 people?
She is out of control. This is not acceptable. Show up to vote it down! Be ready for MORE crime. thanks, Lindsey. DO you live near it?? Maybe they should recall her like they did the DA in SF!
She is a TRUE FOOL!!! Why doesn’t she have a homeless shelter next to her house!!!
Recall Lindsey! Millions spent for so few. Drugs, drunks, & filth. That’s what Weho has become. Now they’re finding their way into our building on Palm bringing cushions from the trash and making themselves comfortable in our pool area and the laundry room. Enough is enough. I’m sure there are better areas than in the heart and soul of Weho and less expensive real estate.
This is a fantastic deal for the seller. The motel portion has little value, though it is well-maintained, the income from the motel is not the money maker on this site. It’s the billboard entitlements. The current income from the existing billboard, I’m guessing, could exceed the income from renting rooms. Developers are always clamoring for the ability to make changes to billboards. Santa Monica Boulevard has historically (from incorporation in 1984) not allowed any changes to the existing billboards. Perhaps it’s time to change that. While I welcome the new use for Holloway Motel, I mourn the loss of… Read more »
Who will be there to shut it down when the neighborhood is inundated with even more desperate and dangerous homeless?
This is a social experiment at best, at the expense of the residents of West Hollywood.
EXACTLY!!! We need to elect better people in the City Council!!!
There i no way homelessness is down 80% in W. Hollywood. I’m sad to say but this whole intersection is already becoming quite shady and honestly feel unsafe at times with sketchy transients
Just because someone is waiting for permanent housing, it doesn’t change their behavior. They will defecate all over the neighborhood and make it an undesirable place to live. The only plus is that maybe housing prices will drop and make it more affordable.
While I’m not exactly thrilled about this, I think it’s important to differentiate between the homeless who are actively seeking assistance – and are on waiting lists for housing – and the treatment-refusing addicts and mentally ill who engage in the behavior you describe. My understanding this is not a shelter, so as long as the services provided are limited to those actively seeking assistance and a return to society, then I don’t see those living at the hotel as problematic. Let’s hope that’s the case and this doesn’t become a magnet for the treatment-refusers.
Way cool!! The park where they all hang out (Veterans Park) is very close by so they won’t have to travel far. And the daily harassing can continue unabated. And as an added bonus they won’t have to wake up early to get to the pancake joint for panhandling, they can literally fall out of bed and be at ‘work’. Such a beautiful arrangement. Not to mention they can have sleepovers with their buds! The more the merrier! Right!?!?!?!?
Hilarious! I love it.
Unless I’m mistaken, that parcel (as well as the adjacent ones containing IHOP & CVS, as well as the other corners of that intersection) are zoned for somewhere between 7 & 11 stories. Converting it to house only units seems something of a waste unless they have an eye toward acquiring (or optioning) the adjacent properties to consolidate the lots and take advantage of the zoning to replace them & the motel with a much larger structure, partnering with the county & using state & federal funding to build a combination of exclusively affordable & low income & transitional complex,… Read more »
All these NIMBY’s – relax it’s 22 units. I think it makes sense and can help people.
Admittedly.
You don’t put a homeless shelter in a residential neighborhood or city’s tourism district.
Yes you do.
If the overarching goal is to destroy, degrade, and ruin what’s good and productive there – this is the perfect plan for that.
Meth addled men masturbating, fent coma sprawling on the hard top, men and women defecating at their feet, at will.
Yum – turning WeHo into an amorphous clone of Los Angeles. Maybe the weed tourist visitors to the Emerald City will be too stoned to care?
The behavior that you describe happened in Ed Buck’s apartment for years, and no one seemed to care. The good news is that you won’t see this at this facility since these people have already accepted help, and are waiting for permanent housing.
If you want to destroy home values, tourism and businesses.
Why can’t it be put in a warehouse district??
….. or half a block from my condo that I will want to sell!
and where would you put these folks? ON AN ISLAND MAYBE????? they need to be near a food source, and bus lines so they can help themselves……YOU are the illogical one here dude.
Why can’t we turn the homeless into dog food. It would be cheaper.