New State Legislation Ensures Hotels and Motels can Continue as Shelters
A new bill that LAHSA and many homeless service providers advocated for was just signed into California State law. It will help continue the collaboration between LAHSA and the City and County of Los Angeles with hotels and motels to expand local shelter programs.
The bill, AB 2835, prevents the sunset of AB 1991, which allows hotels and motels to participate in shelter programs for longer than 30 days without the risk of establishing a landlord-tenant relationship and prevents participants from being withdrawn from shelter without fair due process. Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, AD 46, authored AB 2835.
Prior to AB 1991, hotels and motels frequently moved shelter participants out of their rooms every 30 days to avoid establishing tenancy. This practice, known as “shuffling,” disrupts case management services and wastes time for all involved.
In addition, AB 2835 includes minor changes in language to specify that motel shelter programs must establish, adopt, and clearly document rules governing how and for what reasons a program participant’s enrollment may be terminated.
LAHSA staff collaborated with homeless service providers and the City of Los Angeles to provide feedback on the bill language, which modified the definition of motel or hotel to be more inclusive of other transient lodging establishments and made explicit that physical violence to hotel guests is a permissible reason for program termination.
These changes improve service providers’ ability to exit participants based on their own set rules, ensuring they can protect other participants and hotel guests.
