May 30th, 2018

City councilors question Airbnb regulations

Mayor’s ordinance aims to identify investor vs. property owner

The debate over how to regulate short-term rental units in Boston ramped up last week as the City Council pushed back the vote on Mayor Martin Walsh’s proposed ordinance to June 6.

Walsh’s recently amended ordinance defines categories of owner-occupied short-rental units and requires owner registration and fees, while prohibiting short-term rental of units owned by real estate investors as a way to mitigate displacement and gentrification.

In addition, owner-occupants of two- or three-family homes may list an additional adjacent property for short-term rental for up to 120 days per year.

At a working session May 21, some city council members and stakeholders questioned the proposed regulations, specifically the validity of the 120-day cap as a compromise for property owners.

The debate

In a phone interview with the Banner, City Council President Andrea Campbell said, “I think we have to strike a balance between residents who use short-term rentals as additional sources of income and those where short-term rentals are displacing residents who have lived in that community for a really long time.”

However, she added, “The 120-day rule, I still don’t quite understand that number. It seems arbitrary to me. My concern is how do we enforce that? I think we’re going to have a difficult time doing that,” she said.

Campbell said that the Mayor’s office proposed 120 days after calculating the “tipping point,” or the number of days after which a unit generates more revenue as a short-term rental than a traditional leased apartment. By keeping the cap below the tipping point, the city hopes to curtail property owners maximizing profits at the expense of long-term residents.

“It varies by neighborhood and by number of bedrooms a unit has, so they took an average,” Campbell said.

“Because this is such a complex issue, we are relying on incomplete data,” she said. “Short-term rentals are showing up in Mattapan very different to how they’re showing up in Chinatown.”

Campbell was not the only councilor who expressed wavering support of the ordinance at the working session. Online notes compiled publicly on Councilor Michelle Wu’s Twitter account show that Councilor Mark Ciommo, for example, “worries about manipulating the market and creating incentives for a black market” and “believes we should start slow with registration first, then ramp up enforcement.”

Small business owners

Councilor Frank Baker, Wu’s notes indicate, “doesn’t want to take tools away from property owners,” while Councilor Anissa Essaibi-George “worries about enforcement” and “asks for regular reporting to be added into the ordinance language” and Councilor Matt O’Malley is “unsure whether 120 days is too many or too few days.”

Councilors Wu, Lydia Edwards, Ed Flynn, Kim Janey and Josh Zakim support the ordinance, although Janey expressed some concern “about the 120-day cap as being too harsh on the little guy (or little woman!).”

In a phone interview with the Banner, Janey spoke more on her concerns over the 120-day cap.

“It’s important we do something, inaction is not an option,” she said. “But, what I worry about, is that the 120-day cap could place a hardship on the small landlord who has been using short-term rentals as extra income.”

She added, “What I do like, [the ordinance] eliminates the investor units. The original ordinance treated small owner-occupied landlords the same as corporate investors but now we have a distinction which is great.”

Campbell told the Banner that she also worries about possible unintended consequences to small business owners such as Marie Kemmler, owner of Bed and Breakfast Associates Bay Colony, a reservation agency in operation since 1981 that represents owners of bed-and-breakfast homestays.

Campbell said that Kemmler contacted her to say that capping the number of days a property owner can rent an adjacent unit to 120 days would create an “enormous loss” to the local owners she represents.

“I want to make sure that when we’re putting forth policies to help with affordable housing and displacement, that they’re going to have their intended effect,” said Campbell.

She added, “I have sponsored for example, the Community Preservation Act [policy amendment to the state budget] with Councilor Flaherty and Councilor Edwards, knowing that it will absolutely allow us to create more affordable housing.”

Investors over residents?

Karen Chen, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association said she was disappointed that the council did not take immediate action to pass the ordinance, which she said “would protect Boston’s housing stock.”

Chen said when she heard some of the comments councilors made at the working session, “I was disappointed about the councilors’ concern for investors. Who do you really represent? Investors or residents?”

She continued, “Clearly, there’s a housing crisis in Boston and we have not taken enough action to protect the heart and soul of Boston because a lot of communities impacted [by short-term rental units] are communities of color and immigrant communities, which is what makes the city vibrant.”

Residents’ frustration

In Chinatown, where there are about 200 short-term rental listings at any given time, according to CPA’s calculations, Chen said she hopes the councilors can learn from what is happening in her neighborhood because “now the same is happening in East Boston.”

When asked whether she believes residents can benefit from a platform like Airbnb, Chen said, “Residents who are in real danger of being displaced, they cannot benefit from this platform.”

As the council prepares to take their vote, Chen has a cut-and-dried approach on where they should stand.

“Neighborhood associations and resident groups want more regulations,” she said. “It’s not that complicated — it’s whether or not you’re with the residents.”

Campbell said, “I want to stress that I absolutely understand the frustration and the angst that residents in Chinatown, East Boston, North End and Downtown are facing and I understand we have to take some action. I just want to make sure it’s not rushed and we strike a balance.”

boston politics, Gentrification