Wachs to Seek Bed Tax Exemption for Motel Rooms Used by Homeless

In an effort to free up more money for a federally funded voucher program to shelter the homeless, City Councilman Joel Wachs said Monday he will introduce legislation to exempt each motel room used for such lodging from the city’s 10% bed tax.

Wachs estimated that the change would save $30,000 of the $300,000 that United Way officials, who administer the federal money, estimate they spend on motel and hotel vouchers in Los Angeles each year.

He also said the exemption would encourage motel and hotel owners to make more rooms available under the program.

Use of Tax ‘Crazy’

For the city to tax rooms made available under a federal government program is “crazy,” said Wachs, whose district includes the southeast San Fernando Valley.

“It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he said during a press conference at the Fiesta Motel in North Hollywood, which will make 22 of its 77 rooms available to homeless people with vouchers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency beginning March 1.

“The federally funded vouchers are specifically distributed to homeless families needing temporary emergency shelter, and the city immediately takes 10% of the money away for other purposes. It doesn’t make sense,” Wachs said.

He said he sees no problem in convincing his City Council colleagues to vote for the tax exemption because “all of us are going to be suitably embarrassed. I can’t imagine anyone who would vote against it. I hope other cities will follow our example.”

The exemption, which Wachs said he expects to take to the council as an emergency measure today, will go into effect immediately if approved, he said.

The vouchers for homeless families are worth $15 a night to the motel owner who allows his room to be used by the federally subsidized program. Thus, the $30,000 tax savings could pay for an additional 2,000 beds a night for a year, Wachs said.

Wachs said he chose the Fiesta Motel as the site for his press conference to help counteract the public’s tendency to think of the homeless as only living on Skid Row.

Short-Term Help

The use of the motel at 7843 Lankershim Blvd. as a shelter was prominently mentioned at a conference held Friday to form the Valley’s first coalition to help the homeless. However, speakers noted that the accommodations will be only of short-term help.

Keynote speaker Madeline Stoner, assistant dean of the USC School of Social Work, told conference participants that “more attention must be paid to long-term solutions such as low-cost housing. The lack of affordable housing is the major contributing factor to homelessness today. Mental illness is not the primary cause, as some believe.”

“Until the federal government recognizes the need for low-cost housing, areas like the San Fernando Valley can only cope with but not solve the homeless crisis,”.

County Supervisor Ed Edelman told the conference, held at California State University, Northridge, that the current political climate does not favor appropriating public funds to build shelters for the homeless.

“But we either pay $750 a day for a hospital room when a homeless person comes down with pneumonia or $15 a day to build a shelter, Edelman sadi.