LA City Council seeks enforcement against illegal short-term rentals

The Los Angeles City Council Friday approved a motion aimed at strengthening enforcement of a city ordinance prohibiting unpermitted and noncompliant Airbnbs and other short-term property rentals.

The motion by Councilwoman Nithya Raman and councilmen Bob Blumenfield, Mike Bonin and Paul Koretz instructed the Department of City Planning to report back within 90 days on:

— recommendations for how the city can address noncompliant hosts who rent out properties listed as a primary residence but are not used as such, the conversion of affordable housing stock into short-term rentals, the conversion of multifamily residential structures to short-term rentals, short-term rentals engaging in commercial uses/activities, and properties that are rented for longer periods of time than permitted;

— enforcement mechanisms such as citations, fines, license revocations and criminal penalties;

— home sharing regulatory and enforcement models of other cities, including San Francisco, Austin and New Orleans;

— strategies for ensuring all home-sharing platforms that operate within the city enter into platform agreements requiring them to share data with the city;

— strategies for implementing and improving data collection; and

— what staffing or dedicated unit, office or department is needed to consolidate various aspects of home sharing compliance and enforcement in one multidisciplinary team.

“In our city, we cannot afford the consequences of losing any more affordable housing units from a supply that is already in a desperate deficiency,” Raman said.

“Failing to fully and adequately enforce the Home-Sharing Ordinance means we are losing housing, subjecting tenants to displacement pressure, and inviting major nuisance and quality of life issues into our communities. Today’s vote is an essential step in our ongoing efforts to stabilize and protect our neighborhoods.”

A study from McGill University prepared for Better Neighbors LA found that one-third of the city’s advertised short-term rental listings have been illegal since the home sharing ordinance went into effect in 2018.

“We passed short-term rental regulations in LA to prevent property owners from converting homes for Angelenos into rogue hotels, but enforcement is so lax that operators and platforms are violating the law and worsening our affordable housing crisis,” said Mike Bonin, who co-authored the 2018 Home Sharing Ordinance. “We are hemorrhaging valuable rental stock, and it needs to stop.”

The Department of City Planning will also draft a report within 90 days for a plan to create a centralized, digital database or platform to better coordinate tracking of noncompliant properties. The platform would be used for monitoring and enforcement purposes.

The motion also instructed the department to ensure within 90 days that the public be able to view whether any property in the city has a home-sharing license, a home-sharing license renewal or an extended home-sharing license.

“On top of grappling with out-of-control parties and violent crimes at short-term rentals, we have serious concerns about violations of the Home-Sharing Ordinance such as the illegal conversion of our critical affordable housing stock, hosts engaging in commercial activity, and renting out homes that are not a primary residence,” Koretz said.

“In fact, we see any number of violations of the Home-Sharing Ordinance every day in my district, and we need to take a serious look at the program and the mechanisms and resources required to effectively enforce the ordinance.”