The Mar Vista Park Auditorium bulged out the double-door entries with people eager to express themselves for or against the short-term rentals (STR). People stood, people sat on chairs or on the floor. All eager to hear or talk.
“I would never burden my neighbors,” said one. “I love to meet these people from out of the country … my children are getting a real introduction to a world beyond themselves,” said another. Five hundred people showed up to one house in the canyon for a wedding … there was a fire hazard as well as a severe parking problem,” said another. It went on and on.
No one is arguing that people cannot rent out a room or part of their house as long as the owner lives on site. But there were many defending that position. Their lives, they claim, depend on this extra income for one reason or another. AirBnB claims that 82 percent of the Los Angeles AirBnB rentals are by onsite owners.
What is at task are the rentals not handled by “professionals.” Nonprofessionals are people who do not live on the property, thus not affected by objectionable operations. Professionals manage and regulate. Hotel and motels are operated by professionals. They are responsible for the proper operation of the property.
Many brought up the fact that these rentals did not meet safety, sanitation or ADA requirements.
City Planning already has on the books that R-1 thru R-3 cannot have short-term rentals, which are rentals for 30 days or less. Yet, there is no enforcement. One can lobby for the best law on the books but if it isn’t enforced, it is what we have now. See Ed Rucker’s travail for enforcement of what is on the books.
See editor of Venice Canals blog Darryl Dufay’s article on the short-term rental meet for details of the event.
See Carl Lambert’s article—we’ve always had short-term rentals—AirBnB has just publicized such, and now, everyone has gotten into the act.
Keep Neighborhood First wants to include those rentals now under rent control for short-term rentals should they become free. Update’s answer to that is get more housing. Owners of rent controlled housing are subsidizing the low-rent market now. The price of housing has increased because of all the restrictions for developers. Developers are in the business to make money. See the article in the LA times. It is supply and demand. The more units, the more competition for tenants, thus lower rents.
