A New Blow to City Tenants

New York lawmakers clearly hate New Yorkers. First they impose rent-regulation rules that create a housing shortage, then they cite the shortage as a reason to block tenants from making a few extra bucks by renting out unused parts of their homes for short periods.

That’s what the City Council did last week by passing a bill to make it much harder for tenants to open their homes for rent via services like Airbnb. What do lawmakers — like Councilman Ben Kallos, who sponsored the bill — have against tenants, anyway?

The legislation forces short-term rental hosts to register with the city and provide mountains of information. And it fails to clarify exactly who is eligible to host, opening the door for New Yorkers to be fined thousands of dollars for renting homes they live in. Tenants would also have to get added consent from their landlords even if their leases already permit such rentals.

Critics note the bill’s provisions go way beyond what most other cities require. Clearly the goal is to limit such rentals, if not end them altogether — supposedly to free up units for permanent city residents.

“We don’t have enough housing, and anything we can do to put housing back on the market is a good thing,” says Kallos. Anything? Then how about rolling back rent regulation, which would “put housing back on the market” practically overnight?

Besides, the units being rented out aren’t off the market; they’re actual homes people live in, and the extra few bucks they earn helps them pays their bills: A whopping 40 percent of Airbnb’s hosts in the city say they’ve used the cash to avoid eviction or foreclosure, the company says.

OK, Kallos & Co. probably don’t want to see these people evicted. But lawmakers simply care more about a far more powerful and well-endowed group: hotel owners and unions. That industry has been devastated by the pandemic’s hit on tourism and now, more than ever, wants to squash competition from the average Joes and Janes trying to drum up a bit of cash.

Mayor de Blasio will likely sign the bill, but it leaves so much discretion that Mayorelect Eric Adams can greatly ease the blow to renters. Better, he can push lawmakers to soften it — or scrap it altogether.