Housing, Tenant Advocates Launch Coalition To Fight New AirBnB Bill Threatening Tens-of-Thousands of NYC Homes

NEW YORK, NY (12/09/2024) (readMedia)-- Today, dozens of housing advocates and New York City tenants launched "Tenants Not Tourists," a new coalition demanding NYC Council Members reject a bill from Airbnb and other private investors that would eliminate thousands of units of housing and weaken enforcement against illegal short-term rentals in city neighborhoods. Intro 1107, which was quietly introduced last month, would take tens of thousands of apartments off the rental market - driving rents up and deepening the city's worst housing crisis in decades.

Watch a recording of the event here.

View images from the event here.

"The City Council can't claim to be fighting for more housing and against deed theft while carving out loopholes that incentivize private equity vultures and weaken enforcement against bad actors. Local Law 18 is a critical tool to protect New York's housing stock and must be upheld to prevent our neighborhoods from being turned into playgrounds for profiteers. We know New Yorkers are struggling to find affordable, stable housing in the middle of a crisis that demands immediate action - not giveaways to Airbnb and other corporate interests draining our housing supply. The Council needs to stand with tenants, not tourists and Airbnb, and reject this dangerous bill," said Whitney Hu, Director of Civic Engagement and Research for Churches United for Fair Housing, a member of the Tenants Not Tourists coalition.

Members of the Tenants Not Tourists coalition include Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH), Citizen Action of NY, Coalition Against Illegal Hotels, Community Service Society of New York (CSS), Cooper Square Committee, Crown Heights Tenant Union, HOPE (Housing Organizers for People Empowerment), Housing Conservation Coordinators, Inside Airbnb, Make the Road New York, MET Council on Housing, Mobilization for Justice, Inc., National Organization for Women at Hunter College, Pratt Center for Community Development, Ridgewood Tenants Union, Tenants Political Action Committee, The Action Lab, The Legal Aid Society, VOCAL-NY, West Side Neighborhood Alliance, and others. The event was also supported by the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council (HTC).

Today's event is the three-year anniversary of the New York City Council voting to adopt Local Law 18, also referred to as the Short-Term Rental Registration Law, to regulate the short-term rental market and reduce the burden real estate purveyors were having on New York's housing stock. The law specifically requires short-term rental hosts to register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement (OSE), and prohibits booking service platforms (such as Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and others) from processing transactions for unregistered short-term rentals.

Despite misinformation from Airbnb and other private real estate companies, Local Law 18 did not change the law around short-term rentals in New York City. Instead, the law strengthened enforcement mechanisms for short-term rentals that violate zoning or housing regulations and have long been illegal. For years, landlords and homeowners engaging in these practices faced minimal accountability but now, Local Law 18 has created a registration system to ensure compliance with existing laws and finally give the City tools to enforce existing state regulations.

Intro 1107 would effectively deregulate the entire short-term rental industry by not only reversing the gains achieved under Local Law 18, but going far beyond and weakening any enforcement against illegal short-term rentals. Intro 1107 threatens to jeopardize housing stability and open the door for private equity firms to flood the market, driving up costs and making future homeownership even harder for working families.

"Turning houses into legal hotels will result in the plunder of our neighborhoods by predatory equity. Owning a house is already out of reach for most people. This law will make it a thing of the past," said Vivian Abuelo, Westside Neighborhood Alliance (WSNA).

"Amid the ongoing housing crisis, it is nonsensical to convert residential homes into short-term rentals for tourists, instead of using this housing stock to help New Yorkers secure permanent housing. Moreover, Intro 1107 directly contradicts the goals of Local Law 18 of 2022, which sought to expand our housing stock's availability to low- and middle-income New Yorkers who are increasingly being priced out, and those seeking to move from shelter into permanent housing," said Robert Desir, Staff Attorney in the Civil Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society.

Background

Despite repeated efforts by Airbnb to overturn the law, enforcement for Local Law 18 began in September 2023. The law has since led to a dramatic decrease in listings on Airbnb and other short-term rental websites, The Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement (OSE), which is charged with implementing LL 18, reported that there were 43,000 illegal Airbnb listings in 2018 alone; that there were 11,934 citizen complaints about illegal September 5, 2023 STRs from 2017 to 2021; and that OSE issued more than 15,000 violations in that period. OSE estimates that at least 55% of Airbnb's NYC revenue comes from illegal STRs.

Intro 1107 would weaken the City's ability to hold violators accountable by carving out an exemption from enforcement for owners of 1- and 2-family homes. The bill would go far beyond reversing Local Law 18 and would undo nearly all regulatory enforcement changes since 2018. The bill also removes the current requirement that short-term rental hosts are present during the stay, which threatens to dramatically increase the number of current rental apartments being converted to makeshift hotel rooms and sets a dangerous precedent for further erosion of tenant protections.

About Tenants Not Tourists

Tenants Not Tourists is a coalition committed to protecting New York City's housing stock for the people who live here - not for the short-term profits of multi-billion-dollar tech companies and real estate speculators. Our name reflects our belief that housing should serve tenants and communities, not be transformed into transient accommodations at the expense of long-term stability. We strongly oppose Intro 1107, a bill introduced in the New York City Council that threatens to dismantle key tenant protections and exacerbate the housing crisis in New York City. This proposed legislation undermines the progress made by Local Law 18 of 2022, which was enacted to address illegal short-term rentals (STRs) and protect the city's housing for long-term residents. To learn more, visit the coalition's website.