Amid homelessness crisis, why is L.A.’s Cecil Hotel mostly empty?
It’s not much — a bed with a mattress, a small nightstand, a dresser, a closet and some assorted appliances in a 160-square-foot room.
Some of those rooms have bathrooms, but most don’t. Several floors of the 14-floor building were sweltering over the summer, as residents waited for the AC to turn on. The kitchen is all the way on the bottom floor.
Still, the Cecil Hotel represents an opportunity for its formerly homeless inhabitants to have a room of one’s own — one that comes with 24-hour security and the freedom to come and go without curfews.
The historic