Karen Bass cuts ribbon on $72M homeless housing project in LA, costing taxpayers nearly $650K per unit

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Mayor Karen Bass cut the ribbon Thursday on a taxpayer-funded homeless housing project at a converted North Hills Motel 6, boasting a staggering $72 million price tag — nearly $650,000 per unit.

The 111-unit property, located on Roscoe Boulevard near the 405 Freeway, is the latest example of Los Angeles’ costly effort to turn former motels and hotels into housing for the homeless.

Bass toured the newly renovated rooms Thursday morning, praising the accommodations and supportive services available to residents.

“The rooms are absolutely beautiful,” Bass told the crowd, pointing to the property’s communal spaces and counseling facilities as critical to helping residents rebuild their lives.

But the price of that transformation is raising familiar questions about how much taxpayers are spending to house people in a city struggling with a homelessness crisis and mounting budget pressures.

The former Motel 6 was purchased in 2023 for approximately $40 million, with another $32 million invested in converting the property into housing.

That works out to $648,649 per unit, based on 111 units, an eye-popping figure for a former budget motel.

The facility will be operated by Hope the Mission, a nonprofit homeless services provider that runs shelters and housing programs across the San Fernando Valley.

According to the organization, residents will receive three meals a day, case management, housing navigation and other supportive services aimed at helping them move into stable housing.

Bass also emphasized the importance of counseling and other programs offered at the property.

“They will leave here knowing how to manage their lives,” the mayor told attendees, describing the facility as a place where residents can begin to heal.

The project is part of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Homekey initiative, which has poured billions of dollars into converting existing hotels, motels and apartment buildings into housing for homeless Californians.

The North Hills project is hardly the first to carry a hefty price tag.

The California Post previously exposed the extraordinary costs of other Homekey developments in Los Angeles including one at 5050 Pico Boulevard, where a modern apartment complex originally marketed as luxury housing was purchased for roughly $35 million.

Located minutes from Beverly Hills and The Grove, the property features upscale finishes, quartz countertops and gated parking.

Its conversion into permanent supportive housing cost taxpayers approximately $1.2 million per apartment in acquisition costs alone.

Since 2020, Newsom’s Homekey program has committed approximately $1.3 billion toward homeless housing acquisitions in the LA region, according to figures previously reported by The Post.

City and county agencies have committed roughly another $1.3 billion toward renovations, construction and operations tied to those developments, bringing the regional public investment to approximately $2.6 billion.

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