AHF: Save the Historic Morrison Hotel! Zoom Press Teleconference, Monday, October 12, 1:00 p.m.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), and its housing division, the Healthy Housing Foundation, are calling the City of Los Angeles and urging the public at large to help save the historic Morrison Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

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AHF celebrated the acquisition of the historic Morrison Hotel, a 1913 Single Room Occupancy (SRO) building in downtown Los Angeles, on Tuesday, December 19, 2023. The Doors and photographer Henry Diltz made the Morrison Hotel famous with their iconic album cover shot of the hotel released in 1970. (Mark Von Holden/AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation)

The groups are now also urgently suing the City of Los Angeles, and its Department of Buildings and Safety (LADBS), challenging their claim that The Morrison Hotel is a “public nuisance” and putting its demolition out to bid. The groups will hold a Zoom press teleconference Monday October 12^th at 1:00 p.m. PT to announce the lawsuit.

AHF’s (Case No. 26STCP03858) for a writ of mandate, asks the court “… to set aside any decisions (1) that the real property located at 1246 South Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015, Los Angeles County Assessor’s Parcel No. 5139-022-006, commonly known as the ‘Morrison Hotel,’ is a public nuisance, and that the Morrison Hotel be demolished.”

The Morrison Hotel earned rock-star fame in the early 1970s as the subject of Henry Diltz’s album-cover photo for the platinum-selling “Morrison Hotel” album by The Doors. Beyond its historic significance, and with new City- funded housing units costing as much as a million dollars, saving LA’s single room occupancy hotels (SROs) from destruction should be a no-brainer.

On December 26, 2024, the Morrison Hotel suffered a fire set possibly by unhoused individuals squatting in the building. Since then, there have been a rash of other fires in buildings along South Hope Street caused by Mayor Bass’ Inside Safe program of constant sweeps, which forces homeless people who don’t want to be confined in temporary housing to hide from sight.

In a continuing campaign of indifference to the struggles of homeless providers that has led to death of The Skid Row Housing Trust, severe crises for the SRO Housing Corporation, and the operators of the Cecil Hotel and others, these non-profits receive no support from the City and are left holding the bag. Without resources to fight the City’s lose/lose scenario, they don’t have the resources to fight back. However, AHF will not be bullied. AHF fights for what’s right and what the City is doing to nonprofit housing providers is definitely wrong.

“AHF was not notified in advance that the City was considering determining that the Morrison Hotel was a public nuisance. Had AHF been notified, AHF would have either submitted evidence in advance of the relevant Board hearing or appeared and participated at the hearing,” said Jonathan M. Eisenberg, Deputy General Counsel for AHF. “AHF strongly suspects that the City of Los Angeles is implementing an illegal plan to demolish the Morrison Hotel, to prevent AHF or anyone else from rehabilitating the building as low-income housing, in disregard for helping people living in the streets to find permanent housing.”

Built in 1913, the Morrison Hotel has the architectural style known as commercial vernacular, with detailing known as Beaux-Arts classicism. The building is made of sturdy brick, steel, and concrete construction.

Since 2022, the City of Los Angeles has spent over $300 million on Mayor Karen Bass’s Inside Safe program to move unhoused individuals off the streets and into temporary and permanent housing. To date, the program has helped only about 5,800 individuals of the City’s estimated 45,000 homeless people as a cost of over $51,000 per placement.

“At best, the City’s overall response to the homeless crisis has been weak and inept. In our case with the Morrison Hotel, the City’s response has almost bordered on spiteful, with the City dragging its feet with a slow and laborious process of obtaining the permits necessary to rehabilitate the Morrison Hotel. This work included seeking permission from the L.A. Police Department to station a security pod, motion lights, and cameras in or around the hotel building,” said Michael Weinstein, AHF President. “Through our legal action today, AHF is trying to save the Morrison Hotel and prevent the City from trying to pass blame to AHF for the large number of people who are unhoused in Los Angeles, and who, because of harassment by the City, sometimes resort to taking unauthorized shelter in vacant private buildings like the Morrison Hotel.”

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization, provides cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 3.3 million individuals across 50 countries, including the U.S. and in Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region, and Eastern Europe. In January 2025, AHF received the MLK, Jr. Social Justice Award, The King Center’s highest recognition for an organization leading work in the social justice arena. To learn more about AHF, visit us online at AIDShealth.org, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

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