Academy of Media Arts files lawsuit against LA Grand Hotel, city after being forced to close doors

The Academy of Media Arts has filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and the LA Grand Hotel, claiming that the hotel's operation in part as a homeless shelter has forced them to close their doors. 

Dana Hammond, the CEO and founder of the Academy of Media Arts, which is also a tenant on the hotel property, says that the hotel's part in the "Inside Safe Program," has created a slew of issues that threaten the safety of the school's student body. 

Now, the school's hallways sit empty as Hammond continues to try and find new ways to bring life to the high school academy he founded and moved into the LA Grand Hotel in 2022. 

At the time, the hotel was the site of "Project Roomkey' the federally funded shelter program that provided housing for unhoused people during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"Yes, Project Roomkey was here," Hammond recalls. "But, we were told it would be leaving."

While the program has since expired, the hotel's shelter space transitioned into a very similar housing option, now operating with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass's "Inside Safe Program," which provides housing to unhoused people that the program brings off the streets. 

As such, Hammond has filed a lawsuit both against the hotel and the city, citing that the constant threat of the unknown forced the academy to shut its doors, and all of the students to transfer to other schools. 

"The issue for me, is to remove kids out of the danger zone of being killed, because that was the next thing that was going to happen," Hammond said.

He took measures to try and keep the students safe, putting up a fence around the school's entrance in February of 2023. While the city paid for half of the $25,000 bill, the gate was just not enough to keep hotel guests from getting into the school. 

Hammond shared images of several people who he says are hotel guests after they broke into the school's facilities multiple times over the last two years. 

On top of that, he says that he and students often found drug paraphernalia and human feces right outside of the entrance, making many uncomfortable. 

"Some people, they might do something weird, or put something on the ground I might trip on, or that might cut me or something," said Salima Forde, a former student of the academy. "You never know, but it did make me nervous."

Haley Hernandez, another of Hammond's former pupils, says that she often saw the homeless population milling about out front of the school. 

"There has been drug dealing right outside, and I've seen homeless people going down the stairs," she said. 

Since moving into the space, AMA has faced several challenges. At their inception, they were a charter school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, but in April of 2023, they received a Notice of Violation from the district, saying that the school's academic performance levels were "not meeting the academic needs of its students."

And thus, the academy became a private school later that year. Since then, Hammond says that the academy has seen significant declines in enrollment, dropping from 200 students to about 50 before closing their doors. 

"We blame that on the shelter," Hammond said. "The enrollment started to dwindle because of the incidents that kept coming."

Los Angeles has a lease with the LA Grand until the end of July, but there are already plans in motion to begin moving residents of the Inside Safe Program beginning in May. 

In the meantime, Hammond will continue searching for ways to reopen his academy as soon as possible. 

"I know we will be successful, because this isa bout people and it's about service," he said. 

The LA Grand Hotel declined to comment on the lawsuit, but Mayor Karen Bass's office issued a statement upon request, which read:

"The school moved to the LA Grand in August 2022, before Mayor Bass took office. At the time, more than 400 formerly unhoused people were living in the Grand. We know that the school was at risk of losing its public charter school accreditation in April 2023 due to academic performance, oversight and accountability concerns beginning before it moved to the Grand. For its part, the City took steps to help address the school's requests and will continue to support Los Angeles' young people while urgently bringing people inside to save lives."