pixel

HOUSING

LAIST: Santa Monica will soon transform a huge plot of land. Should it include housing?

TheSanta Monica Airport is set to close at the end of 2028. Residents have supported turning it into a park. Proponents of that approach say all 227 acres should be reserved for green space.

But with rents out of reach for many Westside workers, others are fighting to set aside some land for affordable housing.

“If we don’t do it here, I don’t know where we’ll get it done in such big numbers,” said Ralph Mechur, a member of the pro-housing group Cloverfield Commons and a proponent of a measure now aiming to qualify for the November ballot.

Workers and clergy speak out against Airbnb

Dozens of workers, clergy and faith leaders gathered in a powerful and moral speak-out at City Hall and testified at public comment during the LA’s Planning & Land Use Management Committee where Airbnb is attempting to roll back short-term rental regulations in LA.

Faith leaders called on Mayor Bass to protect housing and our communities’ most vulnerable unhoused neighbors.

Have you heard about the Santa Monica Housing Initiative?

Santa Monica faces a serious shortage of housing working people can actually afford. When the airport closes in 2028, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build affordable housing on the airport land. Ask your organizer how you can get involved! 

FAIR GAMES: A NEW DEAL FOR OUR FUTURE

Los Angeles will become the mega events capital of the world over the next several years.  During 2026 through 2028, our city will host—among other events—the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Such mega events and the massive investments required to make them happen should have a positive impact for the city’s residents, including the workers that make the games possible. But in recent decades, in country after country, global sporting events have failed to produce lasting benefits for host communities. 

HOW LOW CAN THEY GO?

The hotel CEOs make more than $10,000 an hour but they can’t pay you a living wage? How low can they go? Watch as we march through Santa Monica. Strike! Boycott! Win!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: LA City Council Moves Forward on Historic Ordinance to Prioritize Housing Over Luxury Hotel Development

Los Angeles – LA City Council moved forward this morning on a revised version of the Responsible Hotel Initiative. Previously proposed by President Paul Krekorian on November 1, this ordinance will codify the core goals of the original initiative put forward by Unite Here: protecting the housing stock in Los Angeles.

The ordinance would:

  • Ensure that developers fully replace any housing lost to hotel development.
  • Codify components of Inside Safe, a program to provide temporary housing to unhoused individuals and families.
  • Give residents a say in hotel development in their communities, ensuring that the city considers a proposed development’s impact on issues like jobs and housing.
  • Address problems like short-term rental “party houses” and trafficking at hotels through permitting requirements and enforcement.

“We have said all along that our contract campaign has been about two things: housing for our members where they work and a living wage,” said Co-President Kurt Petersen of UNITE HERE Local 11. “With this ordinance, we have done more to protect housing than any single contract demand would have done. The fight for a living wage continues.”

Los Angeles is experiencing a dramatic increase in hotel development, ranking second in the nation in the number of new hotel rooms in its pipeline, with more than 100 hotels under construction or in planning stages. Among other pro-housing provisions, the law would require developers of new hotels that displace housing to replace that housing on a one-for-one basis.

“The only way I could afford a home was to move two hours away from Los Angeles,” said Miguel Aragon, who works as a room attendant at Hotel Indigo. “This ordinance would enable workers like myself to spend time with our families, instead of spending hours of our day spent driving to and from work. I’m proud of the City Council for moving forward with this proposal.”

UNITE HERE Local 11 has until December 1 to withdraw the original language of the ordinance. The new ordinance would come before Council for a vote in early December.

LAist: LA City Council Moves Forward On Hotel Housing Ordinance

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Nearly 200 people, including workers, union leaders, elected politicians, and community allies, engaged in an act of mass nonviolent civil disobedience, following an overwhelming strike authorization vote June on 8. Hundreds more room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, and community allies took to the streets to call for the wages required to afford housing in Los Angeles.

EYEWITNESS NEWS ABC 7