Karen Bass cuts the ribbon on a converted Motel 6 for the homeless that cost taxpayers nearly $650,000 a room

Outgoing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Thursday cut the ribbon on a homeless housing project in a converted North Hills Motel 6 that carries a $72 million price tag, or nearly $650,000 per unit, the New York Post reports.

The city bought the 111-unit motel on Roscoe Boulevard near the 405 Freeway in 2023 for about $40 million, then spent another $32 million converting it. That comes to $648,649 per unit for a former budget motel.

"The rooms are absolutely beautiful," Bass told the crowd as she toured the renovated rooms, pointing to the communal spaces and counseling facilities. "They will leave here knowing how to manage their lives," she said.

The project is part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's Homekey program, which turns hotels, motels and apartment buildings into housing for the homeless. It is not the most expensive one. At 5050 Pico Boulevard, a complex first marketed as luxury apartments cost taxpayers about $1.2 million per apartment in purchase costs alone, the Post reported earlier.

Since 2020, Homekey has committed about $1.3 billion to homeless housing purchases in the Los Angeles area, and city and county agencies have put in roughly another $1.3 billion, for a total of about $2.6 billion in public money.

The facility will be run by the nonprofit Hope the Mission, which says residents will get three meals a day, case management and help moving into stable housing.