Fewer Airbnbs — good news for S.F.
San Francisco’s Office of Short-Term Rentals has announced that the number of homes offered to tourists by Airbnb and other platforms plunged more than 75 percent in the past few months.
That’s thanks to legislation authored by former Supervisor David Campos and strongly supported by ShareBetter SF, a unique coalition of tenants and landlords; business and unions; neighborhood associations; and advocates for affordable housing, seniors and people with disabilities.
For the first time in any American city, Campos’ ordinance held Airbnb accountable for facilitating illegal residential rentals. After years of renting tens of thousands of units regardless of their legal status, Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO and other online travel agencies can now be fined for violating San Francisco’s short-term-rental law.
That’s welcome news and well worth celebrating. But while this achievement is hugely significant, there are problems and issues with residential tourist rentals that still must be addressed.
Independent analysts, for example, have repeatedly cited San Francisco’s “split cap” on annual rental nights as unenforceable. If an Airbnb operator is renting rooms in her primary residence (the only units allowed to be used as short-term rentals), then she can do so 365 nights a year so long as she is present overnight. If she’s away, then the entire home can be rented 90 nights each year. The problem: How is the city to know which nights an operator is sleeping in her own bed?
The split cap also acts as a powerful disincentive for people to live with roommates, which, ironically, is the oldest form of the “sharing economy.” An increasing number of people are “over-housing,” i.e., renting multi-bedroom apartments so the extra rooms can be rented to tourists.
Airbnb encourages landlords to allow short-term rentals in their buildings — they can charge higher rents and participate in the short-term-rental income.
If rooms and apartments in a 100-unit building are now available to tourists, shouldn’t the building meet the life-safety standards requiring sprinklers, emergency lighting and fire exits that apply to legitimate hotels?
And what about the accessibility requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act? Airbnb’s pattern of discrimination against people with disabilities is well documented. As it applies its brand to additional apartment buildings, turning them into quasi-hotels, then at least some portion of those units must be fully accessible.
Apart from a handful of neighborhoods of single-family homes, neighbors receive no notice that the city has issued short-term-rental certificates. Given how troublesome many Airbnb rentals have become, that notice requirement should be expanded.
When a home is offered for sale, documents provided to buyers disclose important, relevant information that could affect the value of the property. Nearby Airbnb rentals certainly meet that standard and should be highlighted in sellers’ disclosures.
These are some of the issues ShareBetter SF will be raising at City Hall in the coming months. To learn more: www. sftu.org/sharebetter-sf/