Following a statewide call to action by Gov. Gavin Newsom, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is offering a building in Los Angeles—a 74-bed motel being repurposed as housing for the homeless—that AHF recently purchased, but has not yet leased out, to federal, state, or local officials to temporarily house coronavirus patients.
The building is operated by Healthy Housing Foundation, the housing provider division of AHF that offers low-income and homeless housing.
“AIDS Healthcare Foundation has long addressed public health emergencies — from the AIDS epidemic to the Ebola crisis to California’s homeless crisis,” says AHF President Michael Weinstein. “We will do everything we can to help the vulnerable during this difficult time.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Housing Is A Human Right, the housing advocacy division of AHF, applaud the efforts of Gov. Gavin Newsom to swiftly address the coronavirus crisis in California. We urge both state and local legislators to move quickly to protect vulnerable tenants and unhoused residents.
“Californians, especially low-income and unhoused residents, need urgent protections as the coronavirus crisis unfolds,” says Housing Is A Human Right Director René Christian Moya. “We must act now. Safe, stable housing — and broader social solidarity — is essential during this public health emergency.”
Housing Is A Human Right is working with partners statewide and in Los Angeles to ensure that elected officials speedily approve legislation that protects residents. That policy effort includes these eight general principles:
- An emergency moratorium on rent increases and evictions;
- An emergency moratorium on mortgage foreclosures;
- Suspension of unlawful detainer proceedings through March 2020;
- Suspension of homeless encampment sweeps statewide;
- Emergency rental or mortgage assistance — or rent and mortgage forgiveness covering the period of a declared coronavirus emergency;
- Prevent utility shut-offs for the duration of the crisis;
- Ensure the unhoused can self-quarantine on the streets with adequate access to sanitation and medical support;
- Ensure shelters are adequately prepared to enact proper social distancing procedures and maintain sanitary conditions for the sake of their residents.
Lastly, Housing Is A Human Right urges Los Angeles officials to use unoccupied buildings as emergency shelters for coronavirus patients, where they can also receive medical treatment. Such buildings include the Sunset Gordon apartment complex on Sunset Boulevard and USC County Hospital.