LOS ANGELES—More than 115 hotels throughout Los Angeles County have volunteered their hotels to the County Public Health Department, providing access to more than 10,000 rooms as temporary shelter to support the COVID-19 response, the Hotel Association of Los Angeles announced.
The unprecedented response by the Los Angeles hotel industry represents approximately 15 percent of all Los Angeles hotel rooms, which are available to protect and isolate population segments vulnerable to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Our hotel community response is just one more example of the extraordinary men and women behind the hotel business,’’ said Heather Rozman, Executive Director of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles (HALA). “Hospitality is a people business and in a time like this, we’re going to step up and take care of people, it’s what we do best.”
A Complicated Process
HALA and member hotels have been working with Mayor Garcetti, City Councilmembers, County Supervisors and, importantly, County officials to determine how hotel rooms can best be deployed. Assuring the health of individuals who may occupy hotel rooms is a complicated process that is being addressed by public health officials and a multitude of state and local government leaders.
Priorities and processes continue to evolve for who would be housed in the hotels and how an individual’s health would be monitored while sheltering in a hotel, depending on the specific population served and the ever-changing health needs to keep Angeleno’s healthy and safe.
“Our hotel rooms are available now and we know our public officials are working hard to assure the well-being of all Angeleno’s and individuals who may need temporary shelter,’’ Rozman added. “Unprecedented challenges require unprecedented action, and our hope is that by opening up thousands of hotel rooms, we can reduce the spread of this virus at a time Los Angeles needs hospitality the most.”
