Post by High Priestess on Aug 26, 2016 1:05:55 GMT
The article headline:
"Portland’s Short-Term Rental Rules Are Such a Joke That an Airbnb Employee Ignores Them ---
She runs six Airbnb listings in two states—three in Portland."
www.wweek.com/news/2016/08/24/portlands-short-term-rental-rules-are-such-a-joke-that-an-airbnb-employee-ignores-them/
Excerpt:
When Rebecca Rosenfelt moved to Portland from San Francisco last year, she paid $1.6 million for two Boise neighborhood townhouses and almost immediately began renting one of them out on Airbnb for as much as $350 a night.
The four-bedroom townhouse is one of six properties Rosenfelt listed on Airbnb— 3 in Portland, 1 in San Francisco, and 2 in Northern California's Sonoma County.
When Portland began allowing short-term rentals in 2014, City Hall created rules to ensure that Airbnb's clients wouldn't add to a citywide housing crunch by taking apartments and homes off the market and renting them out to tourists. San Francisco passed similar restrictions. Among those rules: People can list only properties where they live for at least nine months a year.
Rosenfelt's 6 properties violate the spirit of those rules—and at least 2 of her rentals, the San Francisco condo and Northeast Portland townhouse, flout the letter of the law by not having the required city permits and safety inspections.
And Rosenfelt should know the law: She's an Airbnb manager at the tech company's Portland headquarters.
Critics have long complained that Portland's short-term rental regulations are toothless—two years after the rules were adopted, less than a quarter of Airbnb clients have bothered to get the required $178 permit and safety inspection.
Now those skeptics say the rules have become such a joke that even an Airbnb employee ignores them.
"It just makes it look like those rules were only ever for show," says Margot Black, an organizer with Portland Tenants United. "Even an Airbnb manager is blatantly flouting them. The fact that it's in the midst of a housing crisis makes it all the more obscene."
The four-bedroom townhouse is one of six properties Rosenfelt listed on Airbnb— 3 in Portland, 1 in San Francisco, and 2 in Northern California's Sonoma County.
When Portland began allowing short-term rentals in 2014, City Hall created rules to ensure that Airbnb's clients wouldn't add to a citywide housing crunch by taking apartments and homes off the market and renting them out to tourists. San Francisco passed similar restrictions. Among those rules: People can list only properties where they live for at least nine months a year.
Rosenfelt's 6 properties violate the spirit of those rules—and at least 2 of her rentals, the San Francisco condo and Northeast Portland townhouse, flout the letter of the law by not having the required city permits and safety inspections.
And Rosenfelt should know the law: She's an Airbnb manager at the tech company's Portland headquarters.
Critics have long complained that Portland's short-term rental regulations are toothless—two years after the rules were adopted, less than a quarter of Airbnb clients have bothered to get the required $178 permit and safety inspection.
Now those skeptics say the rules have become such a joke that even an Airbnb employee ignores them.
"It just makes it look like those rules were only ever for show," says Margot Black, an organizer with Portland Tenants United. "Even an Airbnb manager is blatantly flouting them. The fact that it's in the midst of a housing crisis makes it all the more obscene."
Perhaps the massive flouting of the law indicates....that many people dont' really like the law? I would think so, if I were in government. That would strike me as fairly common sensical. And I would be seeking a way to go with the flow and flow with what was happening in the world around me rather than try to pass laws against it.