Date: Feb 10, 2015
Airbnb and similar "home sharing" websites have exploded in popularity in LA, overwhelming city regulators who are struggling to collect tourist taxes and enforce long-standing restrictions on rentals.
Renting out rooms or homes for a few days or weeks is illegal in many residential areas, city planning officials say. But the building department and other city agencies say they face practical obstacles to cracking down on such rentals, as individuals and investors have flooded the app-fueled LA marketplace.
In tourist meccas such as Venice Beach, annoyed residents say entire homes are being rented out nonstop to revolving groups of guests. Some residents say they fear that the phenomenon is becoming overly commercialized, exacerbating an affordable-housing crunch as apartments and homes that housed tenants are converted to vacation rentals.
"It's supposed to be a spare room — not corporate interests taking over our neighborhood and turning everything into a virtual hotel," said Scott Plante, a Silver Lake resident.
When neighbors turn to the city to enforce the rules, Plante said, "it's a very nebulous situation."
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 12
Pub: Feb 10, 2015