“Part of the reason for the anti-vacation statute is to make sure that the housing stock is not impacted by this type of activity”, said Denise Smith who works to enforce the anti-short term rental law [2]. The biggest concern is people who, like Shatford, have more than one rental property. With apartments in Santa Monica fetching $3,500 a month as ordinary rentals, long-term residents can no longer afford to live anywhere West of downtown [2]. City Attorney Yibin Shen hopes to see these houses returned to the housing market as normal apartment rentals [2].
Santa Monica’s law goes further than regulations by other cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City, suffering a similar problem [3]. Los Angeles is now considering new rules that would legalize and regulate the practice of renting out rooms or homes for short stays, a practice that has flourished in the city despite being illegal [1]. Under the new rule, residents of Los Angeles would be allowed to rent out their entire home to visitors while they are not there [1].
Stay tuned to Rights First Law for more on this and other legal news.
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[1]http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-santa-monica-airbnb-conviction-20160713-snap-story.html