Owners of second homes \u2014 and Airbnb \u2014 stand to reap a windfall under an initiative in Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 new city budget proposal.<\/p>\n
Tucked away in the more than 500 pages of city budget expenditures, the mayor calls for creating a new revenue stream by allowing people who own a second home to rent it out on a short-term basis, something that is currently prohibited.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s office says the measure would provide additional tax revenue for the city and extra beds for visitors during the 2028 Summer Olympics, with the measure expiring at the end of that year. To take effect, the City Council would need to approve a vacation rental ordinance. <\/p>\n
Expanding the short-term rental market out of the city\u2019s existing housing stock is fiercely opposed by the hotel workers union and hotel companies, as well as by affordable housing advocates who say it will further deplete the city\u2019s limited housing stock. <\/p>\n
City Council members voiced some of those same concerns at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a list of dozens and dozens of [rent stabilized] units in my district … that are currently Airbnb units. This is happening,\u201d Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said. <\/p>\n
Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said a significant policy change such as this should move through a regular council process and not be approved as part of the budget. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge policy. It\u2019s going to require a lot of vetting,\u201d said Blumenfield, who chairs the council\u2019s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which is scheduled to consider the vacation rental ordinance May 12. <\/p>\n
Bass spokesperson Paige Sterling said the mayor wants to have as many beds as possible available in the city when the Olympics take place. Under current law, Los Angeles residents can rent out only their primary residence and not additional \u201cvacation\u201d homes they may own.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has met with several industry partners and believes one step toward supporting this economic growth is to enable additional short-term rentals,\u201d Sterling said.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s budget proposal doesn\u2019t specify how much the new measure would raise but stipulates that short-term vacation rental companies \u2014 and Airbnb is the industry leader \u2014 could offer \u201cprepayment\u201d of the transient occupancy tax they owe in advance of the Olympics to help the city pay for key infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n
People familiar with the situation say Airbnb has agreed in talks with the city to pay $50 million in prepaid occupancy taxes. Bass\u2019 office and Airbnb didn\u2019t respond when asked if that was the amount being discussed, but opponents have seized on that figure. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are bribing the city with $50 million in order to get an expansion of vacation rentals which is the last thing our city needs since we already have a severe crisis of housing,\u201d said Kurt Petersen, the president of Unite Here Local 11, the hotel workers union.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is running against Bass in the city\u2019s June 2 mayoral primary, also criticized the mayor\u2019s proposal. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that the City would entertain speculative tax prepayments tied to expanding short-term rentals, while we are in an acute housing affordability and availability crisis, needs to be properly vetted to consider its full ramifications,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Airbnb is casting the proposal as an easy way to boost city revenue. The San Francisco-based company has been joined by a broad coalition of groups \u2014 including chambers of commerce, trade unions and community organizations \u2014 advocating for the change.<\/p>\n
The coalition launched a campaign last year dubbed \u201cSave Our Services,\u201d which touted the expansion of short-term rental revenue as a means of increasing city revenues. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doubling down on our efforts to support Los Angeles\u2019 resilience and provide critical tax revenue that helps fund essential city services,\u201d said Justin Wesson, Airbnb\u2019s public policy senior manager for California.<\/p>\n
Airbnb has collected and paid the city more than $370 million in transient occupancy taxes over the last decade, a company spokesperson said. <\/p>\n
The L.A. Planning Department has estimated that passage of the ordinance, which was first proposed in 2018, would probably open up fewer than 5,500 new potential short-term rentals. <\/p>\n
In an April 2 report, the department said that allowing second homes to be listed as short-term rentals could take housing units off the market and result in higher rents citywide. It could also negatively affect hotels in the city.<\/p>\n
But the department issued another report 13 days later, this time saying that making the program temporary could minimize effects on the housing supply, help generate more tax revenue and open up more short-term rentals ahead of an \u201canticipated increase in tourism during upcoming major events.\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles is about to host a bevy of major events, with the U.S. Women\u2019s Open Golf Championship this June, the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer, the Super Bowl LXI in 2027 and then the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2028.<\/p>\n
Around L.A. County, municipalities vary widely in their handling of short-term vacation rentals. <\/p>\n
Santa Monica bans them completely, allowing only home-sharing, while Inglewood allows vacation rentals as long as they are within 1,000 feet of the owner\u2019s primary residence and that person has been living in the city of Inglewood for 10 consecutive years. <\/p>\n
Nella McOsker, the president of the Central City Assn., which is a member of the Save Our Services coalition, said the budget plan can kill two birds with one stone by raising new revenue for the city while creating much-needed additional open beds for tourists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it so scary and novel to say how can we help achieve multiple goals?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s proposed budget is now before the City Council, which can make changes before voting to adopt a final budget by June 1.<\/p>\n
The Budget and Finance Committee agreed on Tuesday not to strike the mayor\u2019s language about the Vacation Rental Ordinance from the budget yet, but will reconsider on May 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have serious concerns about this happening through the budget process when it\u2019s already happening through the normal process,\u201d said Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the budget committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Owners of second homes \u2014 and Airbnb \u2014 stand to reap a windfall under an initiative in Los…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":761190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[312822,17053,312821,3232,1582,276,2451,265747,312823,4155,2961,224,2444,5337,12176,289,27629,312819,41508,312820],"class_list":["post-761189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-additional-tax-revenue","tag-airbnb","tag-airbnb-style-short-term-vacation-rental","tag-budget","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-city","tag-finance-committee","tag-housing-stock","tag-june","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-losangeles","tag-mayor","tag-measure","tag-second-home","tag-short-term-rental-market","tag-summer-olympics","tag-vacation-rental-ordinance"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116487708129591888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}