Anaheim council OKs plan to divert part of tourism levy to workforce housing, creates hotel-led oversight panel

Anaheim City Council on Tuesday approved a resolution of intent to modify the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District (ATID), opening a public-notice and hearing process to direct 9% of ATID assessments to workforce housing programs aimed at hotel employees and other resort-area workers.

The change would dedicate a new subaccount inside the Anaheim Housing Trust for ATID-funded workforce housing, expand the ATID boundary to include the Viv hotel and a small triangle of properties along Anaheim Way and Claudina Way, require newly built or converted timeshare/vacation-ownership units inside the boundary to pay the assessment and set a timeline for public meetings and a final hearing this fall.

City staff say the ATID generates roughly $32 million annually; 9% of that is approximately $3 million today. City Manager (Staff member) described the proposal as “an effort that has been years in the making.” Council Member Norma Campos Kurtz, who led the measure, told the council that hoteliers had repeatedly told city leaders they wanted to help their workforce: “There has not been not a 1 hotel, large, small, medium, who has not said, I support housing for our workforce.”

Why it matters: The ATID is a self-assessment paid by hotels in the Anaheim Resort and Platinum Triangle. The revenue has historically funded marketing, promotion and transportation services that benefit the tourism economy. The council’s action starts the formal process to add housing as a permitted use of ATID funds and to create a new governance structure that will steer how that money…