LA’s Oldest Hotel Brings Hope for the Holidays

At a December 22^nd ceremony, AHF and its Healthy Housing Foundation unveiled a cornerstone plaque rededicating the oldest continually operating hotel in Los Angeles (since 1896) to affordable housing

Carolers in turn-of-the-century period costume and a safecracker who opened the near century old hotel safe helped celebrate the holiday addition of the 158-unit Barclay Hotel to AHF’s housing portfolio

AHF and its Healthy Housing Foundation hosted a turn-of-the-century themed holiday reception and cornerstone plaque dedication ceremony today in Downtown Los Angeles to mark AHF’s acquisition and conversion of the Barclay Hotel to affordable housing for extremely-low-income and formerly homeless individuals. AHF purchased the 158-unit Barclay—the oldest continually operating hotel in Los Angeles—in October and has been working to renovate and upgrade the units before people move in. The Barclay is located at 103 West 4^th Street, Los Angeles CA 90013.

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AHF Board Member, Cynthia Davis, Board of Equalization Member, Tony Vasquez, AHF President, Michael Weinstein, California Senator 27th District, Henry Stern, Regional Property Operations Manager, Healthy Housing Foundation, Dominique Eastman, and Los Angeles Urban League President, Michael Lawson unveil the cornerstone plaque at a holiday-themed reception and rededication ceremony to mark AHF’s acquisition and conversion of the Hotel Barclay to affordable housing for low-income and formerly homeless individuals on Wednesday, December 22, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation purchased the 158-unit Barclay—the oldest continually operating hotel in Los Angeles—in October and has been working to renovate and upgrade the units before people move in. (Mark Von Holden/AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation)

To mark the occasion and promote the adaptive reuse of existing older buildings as affordable housing stock, AHF and the Healthy Housing Foundation outfitted the lobby of the hotel in period décor and elements, including carolers in turn-of-the-century period costume and a safecracker who cracked the lock on the near century old hotel safe.

Speakers at the event included Michael Weinstein, AHF President; Dominique Eastman, Regional Property Operations Manager for AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation, who was at one point himself unhoused; Hon. Tony Vazquez, California Board of Equalization Member; Hon. Henry Stern, California Senator- 27^th District; Michael Lawson, Los Angeles Urban League President and Cynthia Davis, MPH, AHF Board Member.

The Barclay Hotel becomes the eleventh hotel or motel in the Los Angeles area that Healthy Housing Foundation has purchased and repurposed as homeless or extremely-low-income housing since 2017 when AHF first kicked off its housing program. In addition to the Barclay Hotel, Healthy Housing also has one additional L.A. area hotel purchase for use as affordable housing pending, near HHF’s Sinclair Hotel, which became part of AHF’s “family of housing” in April. Healthy Housing Foundation also has plans to build new affordable housing units in the Ft. Lauderdale area near its AHF Southern Bureau Headquarters and many of its AHF affiliate organizations across the U.S. are also involved in providing affordable housing in their communities.

AHF launched Healthy Housing Foundation in 2017 to address the rampant affordable housing crisis sweeping the nation by providing fast, easy, and compassionate access to affordable housing with a focus on addressing the needs of low-income individuals, struggling families, youth, and those living with chronic illness.

“AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation focuses on the faster, much less expensive model of adaptive reuse of existing buildings, repurposing them as housing for those previously unsheltered, homeless and/or for extremely-low-income individuals,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AHF. “We wanted to highlight this housing model with a festive, old-time holiday-themed reception and plaque dedication ceremony recognizing and honoring the long history of the Barclay and also celebrating its new life as affordable housing for those in need.”

AHF previously renovated and repurposed ten historic or older Los Angeles buildings. With this latest building, AHF has now created a combined total of 1,183 units in L.A. in our effort to more quickly house individuals and families.

“Due to the enormity of the homeless and housing affordability crises, we need viable solutions that are economic and fast because communities—and the people in those communities—simply cannot wait any longer,” added Weinstein.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.6 million individuals in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us @aidshealthcare.

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Due to the enormity of the homeless and housing affordability crises, we need viable solutions like the Hotel Barclay—AHF's newest property in its affordable housing portfolio, that are economic and fast because communities simply cannot wait any longer.