Los Angeles County officials said Project Roomkey would help people struggling with homelessness find shelter during the pandemic. Organizers among the county’s unhoused say it was closer to being jailed with poor conditions, bad food and overly controlling rules.
Rather than accept what they call draconian restrictions, some of Los Angeles’ homeless population created United Tenants Against Carceral Housing to demand changes at Project Roomkey sites, and shelters across Los Angeles.
Theo Henderson is a member of the small but still-growing group.
“The resounding claim is that [unhoused people] are resistant to services,” he says.
In fact, according to Henderson, “when unhoused people are accepting the services that are offered, they are made to feel infantilized, they are made to feel like criminals.” Shelters regularly have curfews, rules about prohibited items, and a lack of privacy that residents must accept if they want to stay. Henderson says this misguided mentality is the real problem with shelters and programs like Project Roomkey.
Project Roomkey was established in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis. A partnership between the state, Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), the aim was to quickly provide temporary shelter in hotels and motels for those most vulnerable to coronavirus. A large proportion of those in need are those experiencing homelessness. The state provided over $100 million in emergency funding alone for the project last year.
It is unclear if money spent amounted to long-lasting change. According to the Los Angeles Times, the majority of Project Roomkey sites are already closed. With only 11 sites expected to operate through September of this year. FEMA is now offering full reimbursement for room costs. But county officials said in a March report, “it is not feasible to re-open any former PRK (Project Roomkey) sites, nor contract with any new hotels/motels for PRK.” The report cites the large upfront costs as an issue.
The city and county are already facing a lawsuit over their handling of the homelessness crisis. The LA Alliance for Human Rights, a collection of business owners, residents, and others, wants city and county officials to provide shelter services to those living on skid row within three months.
City and County leaders had an ambitious goal of housing 15,000 individuals across LA County. Occupants never reached 5,000 at any point. UTACH members say if the local leaders want the remaining months of the project to be successful, they need to make serious changes such as getting rid of the onerous curfew and creating a mechanism for reporting harassment by staff.
Tackling the city’s homelessness crisis remains a budget priority. Earlier this week, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved nearly $1 billion to address homelessness in the 2021-22 budget. For all the money spent and allocated, members of UTACH say county programs are misguided. Henderson believes unhoused people like him are willing to accept help, but rules like early curfews make it difficult to find permanent housing or maintain a regular work schedule.
“You’re trying to find housing or you are working, you can’t just tell your boss, ‘Oh, I can only work till 4.'’ says Henderson.
Jessica Mendez is another UTACH member. She had been living at Echo Park Lake until the city cleared the large homeless encampment. While city leaders touted the operation as a success, Mendez said it "destroyed everything." While many other park dwellers went into Project Roomkey, the mother of six refused because the curfews would have made it hard for her to deal with work and childcare issues. “If it's Project Roomkey, let me have my own goddamn key,” she said.
Ananya Roy, who is Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography, was once an advocate of Project Roomkey, but has become more critical after seeing the program in action. Roy is also the Meyer and Renee Luskin Chair in Inequality and Democracy at University of California, Los Angeles.
“I am really shocked and angered by how a program with potential like Project Roomkey has been turned into these horrible conditions where people are being treated as prisoners but also are suffering from mental health crises,” Roy says, adding, “People are not better off and they’re clearly not more safe.”
She said LA-elected officials “are wasting public resources on what is not only a shelter shuffle but also they have turned temporary housing like Project Roomkey into the most dehumanizing, prison-like housing.”
The Los Angeles Housing Services Authority did not immediately respond to request for comment for this story. However, Sarah Dusseault, who chaired LASHA’s governing commission in its early stages, told the Los Angeles Times, “Housing that many people in a short period of time, I think that is extremely successful. Nothing on that scale has ever been attempted before.”
Ultimately, the promised assistance never arrived for Mendez in a way she could use. Of the government officials who offered her a room in Project Roomkey, she says, “They gave me a false sense of hope.”