Los Angeles plans to help stabilize Skid Row Housing Trust buildings

The degraded state of the Sanborn Hotel Apartments is apparent from the sidewalk. Holes have been smashed in the wire-reinforced windows of its front doors. And one of the latches doesn’t work, leaving the building open to intruders, who roam the halls at night turning doorknobs, trying to get into open apartments.

Inside, a rancid smell permeates the hallways, begging for Lysol. The manager’s office is dark and empty, as residents say it has been since the latest occupant left last summer. In bathroom No. 2 on the second floor there is no water in the toilet but plenty of human waste.

When Jarian Jovan Banks, 44, moved into the Sanborn Hotel Apartments in 2016, he said, “there was a desk clerk. It wasn’t a lot of foot traffic.” But now, “it’s bad to the point where I do not feel safe.”