Alderman wants Airbnb kept out where single- family homes dominate
Airbnb and other homesharing services would be off- limits in Chicago neighborhoods dominated by single- family homes, under a crackdown proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Council floor leader.
“People who have purchased homes in single- family zoned areas have done so without the expectation that someone would open a motel on the same block every weekend,” Ald. Pat O’Connor ( 40th) wrote in a text message to the Chicago SunTimes.
O’Connor did not identify Chicago neighborhoods now plagued by that problem.
Aldermen Marge Laurino ( 39th) and Anthony Napolitano ( 41st), who co- signed O’Connor’s ordinance, could not be reached.
Chris Nulty, a spokesman for Airbnb, was quick to condemn the effort to make home- sharing illegal in neighborhoods zoned for single- family homes.
“For thousands of people across Chicago, home- sharing has become a lifeline. We are disappointed by attempts to remove an economic opportunity from middle- class families,” Nulty wrote Monday in a text message.
Last month, Nulty used a similar argument against city regulations proposed by Emanuel.
Specifically, he accused the mayor of punishing middleclass homeowners renting out rooms or their entire homes to supplement their income by slapping a 2- percent surcharge on Airbnb.
“Someone renting out a couch on the South Side of Chicago would be taxed at a higher rate than someone renting out the penthouse at the Four Season Hotel in downtown Chicago,” Nulty said then.
“Middle- class families are the vast majority of hosts on our platforms. They’re sharing either a room in their homes or the entire place while they’re gone. This is an additional stream of income for these families that averages $ 5,500 a year. We don’t feel a 2- percent surcharge on middle- class families makes sense when hotels aren’t faced with same fee. We’ve been collecting and remitting hotel taxes in Chicago since February 2015. We want a level playing field.”
To generate $ 1 million to support affordable housing and city programs aimed at reducing homelessness among families with children, Emanuel wants to slap that surcharge on the booking of any shared housing unit, bed- and- breakfast or vacation rental.
Airbnb and other homesharing services would have to register their units with the city, and units rented for more than 90 nights per year would have to be licensed as either a vacation rental or bed- and- breakfast under a proposed mayoral crackdown that hotel operators have been demanding.
To protect guests and hosts alike from injuries and property damage suffered during a Chicago stay, the ordinancewould require all units used as hotel rooms to be covered by liability insurance that covers a minimum of $ 1 million per occurrence.
Downtown Ald. Aldermen Brendan Reilly ( 42nd) wants to scrap the mayor’s ordinance altogether in favor of enforcing the 2010 vacation rental ordinance he spent two years negotiating, only to have it largely ignored.
“We have a perfectly good law on the books. The city should focus more effort and attention on enforcing that law before revising it to essentially unleash Airbnb to potentially wreak havoc on the quality of life in neighborhoods across Chicago,” Reilly has said.