MTA Pulls the Plug on Hotel Bills of Hollywood Resident

Even when the MTA tries to do the right thing, it runs into trouble.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has paid more than $52,929.52 in hotel bills for a Hollywood man who said he was displaced from his home during subway construction. His nearby key shop was damaged so badly that it was declared unsafe.

When the agency wrote advising Henry Lee last week that it was cutting off the “temporary relocation expenses” it has paid for 19 months, subway critics cried foul.

“Heartless,” said Hollywood activist Chris Shabel.

But MTA officials said Friday that while they were paying for Lee’s hotel room, meals and telephone calls at the Hollywood Palms Hotel, Lee had a residence elsewhere, at least since December. In a letter to Lee, the MTA also noted that the payments to the hotel “exceed the value of any legal claims you may have against the MTA.”

Lee denied living anywhere but the hotel. “They are liars,” he said. Ken Spina, who also lives at the hotel, said Lee has lived there continuously and faulted the MTA for taking away Lee’s only home.

Lee said he was living at the Hillview Apartments, which were evacuated in August 1994 after the ground sank on Hollywood Boulevard above the subway project.

The MTA has contended that the building had been damaged by the January 1994 earthquake. Even so, Deputy County Counsel Augustin Zuniga said Friday, the MTA provided temporary housing for more than a dozen tenants. All but Lee and one other man have found permanent housing.

“You’re damned on one hand and damned on the other,” Zuniga said. “Now we’re getting dumped on for finally saying, ‘I’m sorry, we find you’re no longer entitled to this.’ ” He said the MTA’s insurance company may seek reimbursement from Lee.

But Lee said it is the MTA who should pay him. Not only was he displaced by the construction, but his business also was ruined, he said.

Lee said the transit agency informed him Wednesday that he had 72 hours to leave the hotel. The MTA, he said, is refusing to pay the $2,000 for this month’s rent.