A year ago, Westside Current investigated empty Project Homekey hotel rooms. Now, a year later, we found not much has changed-despite Los Angeles spending over $1 billion on homeless housing.
LOS ANGELES – Night falls over Sierra Highway in Lancaster as a police cruiser speeds past two women standing outside a shuttered motel. Behind them, the building-once slated for transformation into housing for the homeless-sits lifeless, fenced off and dormant. Adjacent to a liquor store, it’s become just another stalled construction site in Los Angeles County overwhelmed by homelessness.
A short drive away, another hotel property has become something else entirely: an unregulated encampment. More than a dozen tents crowd the lot. Fire pits smolder. Vehicles packed with personal belongings line the perimeter. Just beyond, a third motel also sits vacant and silent…