The historic hotel, with its haunted reputation and 600 rooms, reopened in December 2021 as a privately funded permanent supportive housing project. With most of the rooms reserved specifically for those in the bottom 30% of the area’s median income, it’s open to any [...] with a government-funded voucher. Many viewed the project as a promising new model in L.A. because of its size and flexibility.
And yet, a year later, two-thirds of the Cecil remains unoccupied.
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Simon Baron Development, a New York-based real estate developer, acquired the building in late 2015 through a 99-year ground lease with plans to renovate the structure and turn it into half hotel, half market-rate apartments.
At the time, the firm was working with the Skid Row Housing Trust to make 15% of the apartments affordable for the extremely low-income bracket. While the developer was securing funding for the hotel portion of the plan, however, COVID-19 hit — and “blew up” the financing for the project. The hotel industry was gutted. The developer needed a new business plan.
The housing trust came up with the idea of turning the entire building into affordable housing.1
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The effort is part of the American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Biden in an attempt to help those most vulnerable in society as COVID-19 exacerbated their economic struggles. The housing subsidies are a part of the federal Section 8 program and geared toward people and families who are homeless, at risk of becoming homeless, recently homeless or fleeing intimate violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking.2
Months later, the Cecil is still encountering the same problem. Zibi, the building manager, says he starts the process by submitting a request for the housing authority to inspect a potential resident’s unit, which often takes weeks to complete even when it’s scheduled to take place within days. Then the housing authority must submit an official rent offer before the tenant can sign the lease.
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- 1. “Clearly Los Angeles, as other major dense, expensive urban areas, has a huge affordability problem and a huge homeless problem,” said Matthew Baron, president of Baron Property Group (now separate from Simon Development). “We figured out a way … we can service that part of the market and become a viable business plan.”
- 2. In July, The Times reported that, after a year, only 5.8% of vouchers received by the city had been used. As of Dec. 11, that number has grown to 20%. Several unhoused people with vouchers described significant wait times with the housing authority after applying for an apartment, with some never hearing back.
