'City Hall: Fill the Cecil Now!' says AHF in L.A. Times Ad

Prompted by Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de Leon after his arrival on the council, city officials and owners of the historic Cecil Hotel are slowly starting to utilize the SRO as entry level housing critical to helping the homeless

In a Los Angeles Times ad set to run Sunday, July 17, AHF urges City Hall to fill the mostly empty, 700+ unit Cecil Hotel and also save other single room occupancy hotels as L.A.’s homeless crisis continues to worsen

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and its housing advocacy division, Housing is a Human Right (HHR), will run another full-page, full-color housing advocacy ad targeting Los Angeles elected and city officials, which will run this Sunday, July 17^th in the Los Angeles Times. The ad, headlined “City Hall: Fill the Cecil Now!” urges City Hall to fill the mostly empty, 700+ unit Cecil Hotel and also urges city officials to save other single room occupancy buildings (SROs) citywide as L.A.’s homeless crisis continues to worsen. This is the fourth housing advocacy ad that AHF and Housing Is A Human Right have run in the paper over the last month.

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AHF and Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) also want to commend Los Angeles City Council Member Kevin de Leon on the lease-up of vacant units at the Cecil Hotel for the homeless community.

The Cecil Hotel is a single room occupancy (SRO) hotel located in Downtown Los Angeles in what is the highest concentration of homelessness in the United States. The building, which has approximately 700 units, remained vacant for decades while homeless encampments and deaths of those living on the street continued to rise.

“It was not until Kevin de Leon was elected to the Los Angeles City Council that we saw any movement to fill vacant rooms at the Cecil Hotel,” said Susie Shannon, policy director of Housing is a Human Right. “The owners of the Cecil have left the building vacant and in disrepair for years and there is still a long way to go in filling hundreds of rooms, but we are confident that with Council member De Leon’s leadership every available unit will be filled.”

Many single room occupancy buildings, specifically designed for very low-income residents, have been left to fall into disrepair, converted to luxury apartments or left vacant for decades. The Cecil Hotel is the most egregious example of an SRO building left vacant in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles during a homeless and affordable housing crisis.

Last year, over 1500 people died homeless in the City of Los Angeles.

Prior AHF/Housing Is A Human Right Housing Ads in the L.A. Times

As part of its developing “SOS” campaign (Save Our SROs!), AHF and Housing Is A Human Right have run a series of ads in the Los Angeles Times over the past month. These include ads headlined: “City Hall: Save LA’s SROs” (June 26, 2022); “City Hall: Save the Morrison!” (July 3, 2022) and “City Hall: Save the Holland” (July 10, 2022)

AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation:

Since 2017, AHF, through its Healthy Housing Foundation (HHF), has purchased, restored, and re-occupied a total of 13 single room occupancy buildings, totaling 1,415 rooms at a low cost, conclusively providing everyday Angelinos with the access to desperately needed affordable housing for the city of Los Angeles.

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It was not until Kevin de Leon was elected to the Los Angeles City Council that we saw any movement to fill vacant rooms at the Cecil Hotel and there is still a long way to go in filling hundreds of rooms in the SRO to address our city's homeless crisis.