By Craig Ruiz | Chamber Business News
An effort by homeless advocates in Los Angeles to require hoteliers in that city to make vacant rooms available to the homeless won’t gain a foothold in Arizona if legislation advancing through the Arizona Legislature becomes law.
HB 2379, a bill by state Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, would prohibit a city from mandating that a hotel participate in a program that would require it to accept a housing voucher in exchange for housing someone in an unoccupied guest room.
“I think that kind of draconian policy, to force hotels and motels to accept these vouchers, however nobly thought out it might be, would decimate our tourism and lodging industry,” Gress said about the L.A. proposal as part of his testimony during a hearing in the House Government Committee.
Gress said his bill tells Arizona cities that they cannot force hotels in their community to adopt this type of “woefully misguided policy.”
The L.A. City Council voted down a proposed ordinance to implement the policy, but instead voted unanimously last August to refer the question to voters on the March 2024 ballot.
