Airbnb is a disease; we have the cure

Home-sharing companies in New York are allowing property owners to operate illegal hotels, driving up rents in neighborhoods across the city. It’s already hard enough for middle-class New Yorkers to find an affordable place to live — we don’t need venture capitalists making the situation worse just to turn a profit.

The most high-profile offender is Airbnb, a multibillion-dollar company that enables shadow landlords to rent multiple apartments in a single building, a practice that is against New York law.

It’s a good law, too. It protects against illegal hotels in New York. But Airbnb, armed with corporate lawyers, apparently sees itself as above the law. In fact, Airbnb has threatened to sue the state if Gov. Cuomo signs a bill that would give New York the power to impose penalties against posting illegal rentals.

Illegal hotels have been a problem in New York City for years, but Airbnb provides a ready-made platform that has led to exponential growth. This rapid growth has caused serious safety and quality of life issues for tenants in buildings that are being taken over by an influx of unvetted hotel guests coming and going.

These illegal shortterm renters are a nuisance to real residents, who are forced to deal with excessive noise and late night activity. And most importantly, in the face of the city’s unprecedented housing crisis, these rentals cut into the limited housing available in New York.

A report commissioned by Housing Conservation Coordinators and MFY Legal Services details how “Airbnb has created a black market for de facto hotels, allowing professional operators to participate in ‘rental arbitrage.’” This manipulation of the housing market has resulted in a direct correlation between “Airbnb’s growth and rapidly rising rental prices in neighborhoods where Airbnb is most prevalent.” The report shows that in 2015, more than 8,000 housing units were lost to Airbnb, reducing access to affordable housing by 10%.

To make matters worse, the report found that 56% of all Airbnb rentals in New York were illegal. However, when they were asked to take down the illegal rentals, Airbnb responded by removing a meager 2,200 of its over 51,000 listings in New York.

At a time when affordable housing advocates are pushing to create and protect 200,000 affordable housing units over the next 10 years, Airbnb is cutting into that goal significantly by allowing these shady practices.

What’s even more alarming is that the report shows a direct connection between Airbnb listings in a concentrated area and the average rental price in that community — average rents in the top 20 Airbnb neighborhoods had risen on average by 10%.

Creating and preserving affordable housing is a challenge for all New Yorkers. So far this year, 2.54 million applicants have applied to the city’s Housing Connect website for just 2,628 affordable apartments. With the city’s population consistently exceeding estimates for growth, the affordable housing crunch will only get worse.

While the state Legislature has worked to expand and extend the incentives for real estate developers and property owners in New York, the impact that rental services like Airbnb have on affordable housing is extremely troubling. That is why the enforcement measure passed by the state Legislature must be signed by Cuomo.

Don’t be distracted by Airbnb’s last-ditch effort to change the conversation by promising a series of reforms.

The common-sense bill on Cuomo’s desk will provide a new tool to enforce existing law that prohibits people from renting their apartment for less than 30 days — fining users up to $7,500 for advertising illegal short-term rentals.

There’s a well-financed political machine pushing against this reasonable reform. California billionaires like Peter Thiel — the same venture capitalist who just gave over $1 million to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign — are pouring money into Albany to get their way.

There is no question it will be difficult to fight for affordable housing against an organization as well-funded and well-connected as Airbnb, but our neighborhoods and communities are at stake. We strongly encourage Gov. Cuomo to show his commitment to preserving affordable housing in New York City by signing this bill into law.