Aug 6, 2026
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Add us on GoogleAn incomplete condo building in West Hollywood has found new tenants — and they’re not paying rent.
For months, residents near a stalled 22-unit condominium development have been living alongside a pack of coyotes that have taken up residence in the unfinished structure, according to the Washington Post.
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The development, under construction in 2018, was stopped in 2024 after opposition from neighbors and the West Hollywood Planning Commission arose, according to WEHOnline. Now it sits empty — a shell more than a mile from any open wild space, wedged between apartment buildings in one of Los Angeles’s densest neighborhoods.
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Neighbor Collin Newman, who has lived in the area for 10 years, captured the nightly soundtrack: “It’s kind of like a cacophony of howls,” he told the Post. “If you’ve ever seen ‘The Lion King,’ imagine a pack of hyenas in the middle of the wilderness. And there’s no escape.”
The story became a local spectacle when news outlets reported on what neighbors dubbed the “coyote condos” — drawing onlookers, reporters and even a helicopter trying to photograph the pack from above.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s theirs. They’re the ones occupying it, living in it,” was Newman’s wry assessment of the situation.
The bigger story: Stalled housing in a city that desperately needs it
The West Hollywood “coyote condo” is an extreme example of a pervasive problem. Los Angeles is in the midst of a severe housing shortage, and construction isn’t keeping pace with demand.
According to a report by Enterprise Community Partners, nearly 40,000 affordable homes across 461 California developments have cleared key regulatory hurdles — including local approvals and partial financing — but can’t break ground without final public funding commitments. Of those, 9,533 stalled units are in Los Angeles County and Ventura County alone.
And a University of Southern California report cited by CoStar notes that Los Angeles County has completed fewer than 100,000 housing units since 2021 — nearly all at market rate — while the county is mandated to plan for about 700,000 additional units by 2029, including close to 300,000 affordable units.
That gap between supply and need can keep rents elevated, push low-income residents further from employment centers and other resources, and leave stalled sites like the West Hollywood condo as monuments to a broken development pipeline.
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The costs and what’s being done
The West Hollywood site illustrates what can happen when a development stalls indefinitely. According to the Post, the building has previously sheltered unhoused individuals, and now wildlife. Neighbors have complained to the city for months with limited response.
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The city of West Hollywood told the Post it follows a coexistence plan favoring nonlethal methods to manage wildlife and now requires the property owners to retain a wildlife control expert. The owners did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment.
Moneywise reached out to the city for comment and was directed to its published statement, which states:
*"*The City recognizes that residents are understandably concerned about the presence of coyotes and is actively responding to the situation … The City’s Neighborhood and Business Safety Division, which oversees animal care and control services in West Hollywood, has been in contact with the property owner's representative to seek immediate action. As with any privately owned property, the owner is responsible for maintaining the site … The City is also coordinating with the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner, which is the primary County-level department that serves to track coyote sightings." .
The financial cost to neighbors living beside a stalled site is real and documented. According to the Center for Community Progress, vacant and abandoned properties suppress surrounding property values, strain city budgets through code enforcement, nuisance abatement, fire response, policing and legal costs. They also contribute to declining quality of life. These effects can compound the longer a site sits unfinished.
Whether the city resolves the coyote situation or not, Newman more broadly observed several other vacant structures in the area. In a city where 40,000 affordable homes sit waiting for funding to break ground, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
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With a writing and editing career spanning over 15 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech.
