Storied Hotel Cecil Reopens As Affordable Housing

LOS ANGELES, CA — The famous and troubled Cecil Hotel embarked on a new chapter in its storied history this week, reopening as affordable housing for people who are unhoused and housing insecure.

The Skid Row Housing Trust held a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the transformation of the historic Cecil Hotel, which has attracted public fascination for its sordid past. It will provide affordable residences to 600 low-income individuals through single-room occupancy units and efficiency studios between 160 and 176 square feet.

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It's not the first time the grand old hotel will serve those down on their luck. Nearly a century old, the hotel was beset by the hardship not long after it opened when the Depression hit. It quickly became known for its hard-luck clientele and suicides. Its reputation would grow over the years as it became the site of mysterious deaths and home to LA's most infamous serial killer.

Community leaders hope its newest phase will be a fresh start as much for the hotel as for the people it serves.

"The Cecil Hotel is a perfect example of the bold and creative solutions needed to make a dent in the homelessness crisis. We are proud to partner with Simon Baron Development to welcome home 600 neighbors who are currently unsheltered, unhoused or housing insecure," Sierra Atilano, Skid Row Housing Trust's chief real estate and investment officer, said in a statement.

The reincarnation comes after the historic and cultural monument's stint as the Stay At Main, which shuttered during the pandemic.

The facility, which was acquired by Simon Baron Development and is operated by the Skid Row Housing Trust, includes secured entry, a community kitchen, laundry facility, a recreational room and on-site case management services provided by SRHT Health and Social Services.

"Unlike other affordable and permanent supportive housing developments, this project was funded and will operate as self-sustaining with private capital," said Matt Baron, CEO of Simon Baron Development. "We are really excited to bring this solution to the growing number of people who are suffering on the streets and are in need of a home."

People are eligible for Cecil Hotel units if they make between 30% and 60% of the area median income, but most units are designated for people making 30% or less.

Public fascination about the Cecil Hotel and the mysteries surrounding was most recently reignited after the 2013 death of 21-year-old Canadian student Elisa Lam, who was staying at the building's rebranded Stay on Main hotel before she was reported missing and eventually found in the roof's water tank. She had been dead a few weeks when guests complained the water tasted off.

The hotel was the subject of a 2021 Netflix documentary series, titled "Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel," which explored Lam's death, as well as other dark periods of the hotel's history.

Hotel Cecil caught the attention of "American Horror Story" creator Ryan Murphy following the 2013 death of Lam. Murphy used the hotel as well as other downtown Los Angeles sites as the model for Hotel Cortez, the setting for the show's 2015 season.

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Before that, the Cecil Hotel was home to The Night Stalker Richard Ramirez during his killing spree. It was also homebase for the Australian serial killer Jack Unterweger, who killed three sex workers in Los Angeles while working as a journalist writing about crime in the City of Angeles.

In 2017, the Los Angeles City Council designated the 1924 building an Historic-Cultural Monument, calling it a "representative example of the early 20th Century American hotel industry" and "an example of Beaux Arts style commercial architecture."

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"Located on Main Street, two blocks east of Broadway and one street east of Spring Street, the Hotel Cecil was once advertised as being `convenient to railway and steamship terminals,' and represents a growing trend in the early twentieth century to develop hotels close to urban and commercial hubs as opposed to idyllic rural resorts," the Los Angeles Department of City Planning's recommendation report for the designation stated.

It also notes that the property maintains "a high level of integrity of location, design, materials, setting, workmanship and feeling," despite alterations made over the years to the building's interior and exterior.

The Skid Row Housing Trust will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9:45 a.m. to celebrate the hotel's opening as affordable housing.

Prospective residents of the Cecil Hotel can contact Char Johnson at 213-542-7575 or char.johnson@skidrow.org for leasing information.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.