Committee adopts initial amendments to allow interim housing in hotels for a sober-living pilot, continues remainder for Planning review

The Land Use and Transportation Committee on March 10 adopted an initial package of amendments to an ordinance that would allow hotels and motels to be used for interim housing without abandoning their tourist-hotel classification, and continued the ordinance to March 17 so substantive changes can go to the Planning Commission.

Deputy Director Emily Cohen of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing described the ordinance as a tool to incentivize hotel owners to partner with the city to provide interim housing. She said the ordinance would allow a hotel owner to apply to establish interim housing without undergoing a process that would make it difficult to regain tourist status later. Cohen said the ordinance was intended to broaden where interim housing can be located and to align with recent state actions that support use of underused hotels for interim housing.

Cohen and sponsor remarks emphasized a narrow exception to support a proposed "sober living" transitional housing pilot operated in partnership with nonprofit providers (the record referenced the Civic Center Motor Inn and a project on Ninth Street / James Baldwin Place). The presentation listed several amendments read into the record, including: authorizing interim housing at Block 3519, Lot 006 (the Civic Center Motor Inn) and permitting hotels that enter into an interim-housing agreement after a specified date to apply under the ordinance. The proposed amendments include findings encouraging HSH and contracted providers to try to retain existing staff where possible and a requirement that HSH work with an interim-housing provider to relocate program participants prior to closure of interim housing.

Deputy City Attorney Bridal Russi advised the committee that the first set of amendments (those narrowing the scope and procedural protections) were non-substantive and could be adopted by the committee and forwarded to the Board; a second set of amendments related to reestablishing tourist status for some former shelter-in-place (SIP) hotels were substantive and must be referred back to the Planning Commission. The committee adopted the first set of amendments and then voted to continue the ordinance as amended to March 17 so the public and stakeholders can review the second set of changes and the Planning Commission can consider them.

Public commenters included multiple residents and program participants from Salvation Army and other recovery programs who urged passage to support sober-living transitions, and union representative Cynthia Gomez (UNITE HERE Local 2) who asked for more time to review the amendment text and warned of potential unintended consequences for hotel workers. Cohen read program statistics for the city's SIP hotel program into the record: HSH served 3,356 adult guests in non-congregate hotel sites during the program and reported that about two-thirds of eligible guests exited to permanent housing. Supervisor Matt Dorsey and others said they supported a narrow sober-living exception but expressed concern about broader conversions and costs tied to previous SIP hotel operations.

On the motions before the committee, Member Mahmood moved to adopt the first set of amendments; the committee voted 3-0 in favor (Vice Chair Chen: yes; Member Mokwa: yes; Chair Melgar: yes). The committee then voted 3-0 to continue the ordinance as amended to the March 17 meeting and to refer substantive changes to the Planning Commission for review.