NYC Advocates, Electeds Rally Against MAGA-Backing Airbnb As Company Tries To Sell Out Our City For Profit

NEW YORK, NY (10/15/2025) (readMedia)-- Today, hundreds of advocates with the Tenants Not Tourists coalition rallied with city and state lawmakers outside City Hall to demand the New York City Council reject Airbnb's attempts to undermine tenant protections and attack our city. Airbnb is pretending to care about working families in New York so they can pass their dangerous legislation, but the company has donated over $3 million to Trump and MAGA Republicans who are attacking those same communities. Airbnb's leadership has referred to immigrants as "criminals" and openly worked with the Trump administration - all while Airbnb tries to publicly distance the company from its support for extreme, right-wing politicians. Now, New Yorkers are calling out their efforts to attack our most basic values and roll back our housing laws so they can profit.

Watch a recording of the event here.

View images from the event here.

"Airbnb is pretending to care about our communities so they can push dangerous legislation that would deregulate our housing laws and allow them to profit. The reality is this company does not care about New Yorkers, and their leadership has consistently attacked immigrants and proudly worked with the Trump administration to undermine our city's most basic values," said Whitney Hu, Director of Civic Engagement and Research for Churches United for Fair Housing, a member of the Tenants Not Tourists coalition. "New Yorkers won't be fooled, and we will not bend the knee to a MAGA-loving company pushing anti-housing, anti-worker laws under the guise of affordability. We are proud to stand with Councilmembers and the vast majority of New Yorkers to protect our homes from billion-dollar tech companies and expose Airbnb's lies."

In recent months, Airbnb has spent millions on local elections to buy influence and support for their anti-tenant, anti-worker agenda. The company is desperately pushing dangerous legislation, Intro 1107, that would take tens of thousands of homes away from permanent New Yorkers ahead of next year's World Cup - and before a new, pro-tenant Mayor can stop them. Now, New Yorkers are fighting back.

Airbnb's proposed bill Intro 1107 would effectively overturn Local Law 18, which the New York City Council voted to adopt in 2021 to better regulate the short-term rental market and crack down on predatory short-term rental platforms. Local Law 18 specifically requires short-term rental hosts to register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement (OSE), and prohibits booking service platforms like Airbnb from processing transactions for unregistered short-term rentals.

"The NYC Council must reject Airbnb's anti-tenant legislation. The company's proposed bill would drive up rent, allow the wealthy to buy up our apartments, and push everyday New Yorkers out of their communities," said State Senator Julia Salazar. "If successful, Airbnb would turn people's homes into short term hotels, and our vibrant neighborhoods into transient tourist traps. Our homes are for New Yorkers to live in, not for corporations to pad their bottom lines."

Senator Cordell Cleare says, "As the city faces a persistent housing crisis, it's unconscionable to see efforts to promote short term rental stays at the expense of the long term survivability of our families. For too long, New York's housing has failed to accommodate the very people who make up the fabric of our city. We must take a multi-pronged approach to solving the housing crisis mixing deeply affordable development and investments in maintaining our current supply. New York is where dreams are made, and for many that looks like a chance at an affordable and stable livelihood. It's time we make that a reality and deliver affordable housing for New Yorkers who live here and keep our city going."

"Airbnb is putting profit over people, and New Yorkers are paying the price. Turning long-term homes into short-term rentals drives up rents, displaces families, and makes our housing crisis worse. The Council must stand with working New Yorkers, not billion-dollar tech companies, and reject Intro 1107," said Assembly Member Larinda Hooks.

Assemblymember Emily Gallagher said, "Airbnb's anti-tenant legislation would displace New Yorkers, increase rents, and exacerbate our City's already grotesque wealth inequality. It is a naked attempt to consolidate wealth and power for tech billionaires at the expense of everyday New Yorkers and their housing security. The NYC Council should reject this legislation to protect our local communities and center people over corporate profits."

"This push by Airbnb to turn working New Yorkers' apartments into short-term rentals only serves to worsen the deep housing crisis we already experience," said Assemblymember Claire Valdez. "I stand with tenants in fighting against those who want NYC to be a playground for the wealthy rather than a place where everyone can afford to live and stay in their neighborhoods. I urge the NYC Council to reject Intro 1107."

"New York is in a housing crisis," said Assembly Member Harvey Epstein. "Intro. 1107 could take tens of thousands of permanent homes off the market for tenants. I join the Tenants Not Tourists Coalition in opposing this legislation".

Despite Airbnb's baseless claims, the law has been a success and empowered the City to enforce existing housing laws. Since it went into effect, Local Law 18 has led to a dramatic decrease in short-term rental listings - many of which have since been filled again by long-term tenants.

Intro 1107 would deregulate the entire short-term rental industry, taking tens of thousands of homes off the rental market and effectively canceling out the gains this Council has made to address our housing crisis. Since launching the Tenants Not Tourists coalition last year to defend against them, Airbnb has announced plans to spend more than $10 million in lobbying and ad spending to buy support for their legislation.

"The passage of Intro 1107 will allow Airbnb to exploit our neighborhoods for profit and push more families out of their homes, thus exacerbating our city's acute housing shortage and making it even more expensive to live here. Every apartment turned into a short-term rental is one less permanent, affordable home for a hard working tenant in New York City," said Aura Mejia, Director of Organizing at Tenants & Neighbors.

"Our affordable housing crisis has no end in sight. The last thing we need is to remove more housing units from the market and incentivize more landlords to push tenants out of their homes. Every day, Communities Resist organizers and attorneys are on the ground fighting for tenants against abuse and harassment from unscrupulous landlords. Intro 1107 only adds to this crisis by displacing more tenants from the communities they call home. Make no mistake, this law would enable companies like Airbnb to turn record profits by squeezing New Yorkers out of their homes in the midst of massive inflation, cuts to services, and increasing cost of living. We demand that the City Council vote down this law and prioritize people over profit and communities over corporations," said Albert Suh, Interim Executive Director of Communities Resist.

"When homeowners aren't present, the block loses accountability - noise, trash, parking issues, and even safety problems can go unchecked. Every neighborhood deserves to know who's living next door, that the property is being cared for, and that someone is responsible when things go wrong," said Anthony Gellineau, South Ozone Park Civic Association West.

Background

Intro 1107 would roll back existing regulations on all one- and two-family homes - which make up 29% of all our homes and 14% of all rental units citywide - and enable landlords to pull tens-of-thousands of apartments back off the housing market, shrinking supply again and driving record-high rents. Intro 1107 would also get rid of the existing requirement that owners are present when someone is staying in their home, which would devastate the entire New York City residential market and invite private equity firms to flood the market and buy up homes.

In response to Airbnb's shady efforts, advocates launched Tenants Not Tourists, a coalition committed to protecting New York City's housing stock for the people who live here - not the short-term profits for multi-billion-dollar tech companies and real estate speculators. The coalition is strongly opposed to Airbnb's bill Intro 1107, which was quietly introduced last year and would prioritize real estate interests trying to profit from our city's scarce housing supply.