Committee narrows interim-housing ordinance to specific hotels, authorizes reestablishment for three shelter-in-place sites

The Land Use and Transportation Committee on March 17 adopted amendments to an ordinance that would allow certain tourist hotels and motels to be used for interim housing without abandoning their hotel classification, narrowing eligibility to a single Civic Center site and three former shelter-in-place hotels and forwarding the measure to the full Board as a committee report.

Emily Cohen of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing told the committee staff and city attorneys had rewritten language to "make it abundantly clear" the ordinance is limited to the Civic Center Motor Inn and to retroactive reestablishment at three specific former shelter-in-place hotels. The amendments designate Block 3519, Lot 006 as the Civic Center Motor Inn site authorized for interim housing and allow hotels that existed after April 1, 2025, to apply to establish interim housing under section 202.15 without losing their hotel or motel use classification.

The amendments also include language to reestablish tourist-hotel use at three properties that participated in the city's shelter-in-place program using parcel identifiers: Block 0304, Lot 005; Block 0715, Lot 011; and Block 0335, Lot 27. Cohen told the committee the April 1, 2025, date is important because the department hoped to begin services at the Civic Center Motor Inn in early April.

Vice Chair Cheyenne Chen thanked Unite Here Local 2 and other community stakeholders for their advocacy and for working with staff on the revised language. Unite Here Local 2's Cynthia Gomez said she and the union could "live with what's there" after the amendments and expressed appreciation for the changes and continued partnership.

Committee members voted to adopt the read-in amendments, to forward the amended file to the full Board as a committee report, and to duplicate the file for a second set of amendments that will allow reestablishment of hotel use for specified shelter-in-place hotels and then continue that duplicate file to the call of the chair for additional work with Planning. The motions passed on recorded votes of Chair Myrna Melgar, Vice Chair Cheyenne Chen and Member Bilal Mahmood, each voting aye.

The ordinance, as amended, also includes building-code changes: a change to Appendix P to remove the restriction that emergency housing be located only on land owned or leased by the city, and findings consistent with the Planning Department's determination. The committee directed staff to return a duplicated, further-amended file to Planning to prepare additional language for future committee consideration.