The City Council is voting on short term rentals on October 6th.
Write to them and tell them you want to keep neighbors in your neighborhood.

 

shead@nola.gov
jasonwilliams@nola.gov
sgguidry@nola.gov
lcantrell@nola.gov
districtc@nola.gov
councildistrictd@nola.gov
jagray@nola.gov

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from Keith Hardie

Please send your comments about short term rentals to:
cpcinfo@nola.gov, jasonwilliams@nola.gov, shead@nola.gov, sgguidry@nola.gov, lcantrell@nola.gov, districtc@nola.gov, councildistrictd@nola.gov, jagray@nola.gov, rdrivers@nola.gov, mayor@nola.gov, ryanberni@nola.gov

Members of the Planning Commission:

Please oppose legalization of whole house short term rentals, which the Advocate characterized as “year-round miniature hotels” in residential neighborhoods throughout the City. At a meeting with the Administration, neighborhood leaders were told that the City needs to legalize these rentals so that it can better deal with the “bad apples” – the bachelor parties, late night shouting matches, etc. – but even if the City succeeds at that, it wouldn’t address the major question: are we going to displace thousands of long-time residents for tourists, driving the cost of buying or renting homes and apartments in New Orleans higher and higher, and leaving many existing residents without real neighbors. Other cities, such as Seattle, have recognized that speculators are “shifting hundreds of homes from the long-term residential market to short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, and in doing so dangerously reduce our housing supply,” and have moved to stop or limit the practice. Don’t let tourism and short term rentals do to New Orleans what they did to Venice, where, in three decades, soaring property values have reduced the population from 120,000 to 55,000.

Please insure that long-time residents and their children can continue to live in New Orleans. Do not recommend to the Council that whole house short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods be legalized. If they must be legalized, they must be severely limited, for example, by not allowing a new one within four blocks of another.

I would also ask you to seriously limit STRs in commercial areas. The proposal in your original study opened up those corridors to STRs with few restrictions, and if that proposal becomes law, I anticipate that many apartments on our commercial corridors, such as those in the Lafayette Square and Warehouse Districts, will be converted to short term rentals, further tightening the housing market for residents,and, in particular, making it difficult for young people who want to work in the city and live in commercial areas to find housing. I hear that one apartment building under construction has already been fully leased to a single entity for this purpose. Please, read the article about Venice linked to above. That is where we are headed if you do not place significant limitations on STRs.

The administration told neighborhood leaders that regulating STRs would cost in the range of $ 750,000 – $ 1,000,000 a year. That is not a huge amount, and I suggest that the City find the funds to create an agency policing STRs before it opens up the floodgates and legalizes STRs wholesale. This may be the biggest threat to face the City since Katrina. It certainly has the potential to displace a lot of residents. If you let this genie out of the bottle, you will never get it back in, and you will never hear the end of scofflaws moaning about their 5th Amendment property rights.

Finally, it would be grossly unfair to reward those who have been buying these properties and operating them illegally by allowing them to be first in the door for legalization. The fact that they knowingly broke the law tells us that they will continue to do so. Every application for a short term rental should require the owner to state, under oath before a notary, that he or she has not owned or operated a short term rental or been the beneficial recipient of any proceeds (such as through an LLC) from an illegal or unlicensed short term rental in New Orleans or any other city for three years prior to the application, that he or she currently has no interest in any other STR, and that he or she agrees not to operate (or be the beneficiary of proceeds from) any other STR for as long as the property for which the application is made continues to operate as an STR (such that if the owner/STR operator sells the property to a third party who continues to operate it as an STR, the original owner/licensee cannot apply for a license for a new property, i.e., one STR per customer). If the applicant cannot so swear, the license should go to someone who can.

In addition, the City should require every taxpayer to submit a form with his or her payment of property taxes verifying that the subject property was not operated as an STR during the relevant tax period. That is a legitimate inquiry from a taxing agency and would (a) provide information to the City as to which properties are being operated as STRs so that they can be properly taxed, and (b) put those who file false answers at risk for prosecution for filing false papers.

The Commission did the right thing in cutting back the original staff report and in rejecting the recent proposal to remove limits on Bed and Breakfast facilities. Please, keep up the good work.

Please send your comments about short term rentals to:
cpcinfo@nola.gov, jasonwilliams@nola.gov, shead@nola.gov, sgguidry@nola.gov, lcantrell@nola.gov, districtc@nola.gov, councildistrictd@nola.gov, jagray@nola.gov, rdrivers@nola.gov, mayor@nola.gov, ryanberni@nola.gov

Please write to your City Councilperson

shead@nola.gov, sgguidry@nola.gov, jasonwilliams@nola.gov, lcantrell@nola.gov, districtc@nola.gov, jcbrossett@nola.gov, jagray@nola.gov
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by Keith Hardie, Jr.

Please urge your City Councilperson to pass strong regulations prohibiting short-term rentals of residential properties.

Short term rentals, if permitted, will change the character of the City. They should be prohibited for a number of reasons:

1. There are no fire safety regulations for short term rentals as there are for hotels.

2. The “guests” frequently disrupt residential neighborhoods.

3. Demand by investors in short term rentals drive up the cost of housing. As you read this, realtors representing out-of-state investors are actively looking for housing to convert to short term rentals.

4. Local residents are displaced by the increased cost of housing.

Profits from short term rentals are far in excess of normal rental rates. There is plenty of incentive for investors to ignore the law.

5. Those who live next to a short term rental don’t have neighbors, weakening neighborhood cohesion.

6. The City loses tax revenue, both because the “residents” do not pay hotel taxes, and because they do not stay in hotels.

7. The cost of regulating short term rentals will be high and, like so many other things in the City, regulations are unlikely to be enforced.

It is easier to enforce a prohibition than to permit and attempt to regulate short term rentals.

8. Landlords are unlikely to maintain short term rentals.

Look at student rentals in the Carrollton-University area, many of which have been cited for blight, to see what STRs will become and what they will do to a neighborhood.

9. Without its residents and neighborhoods, New Orleans loses its soul. That is what has happened to Venice, as seen in the article below: “There has been an incredible increase in the number of bed-and-breakfasts and rented rooms in the last five years. You go into a palazzo and there are no Venetians at all; it’s just tourists,” says Mr. Secchi . . . . . Locals are also being priced out by wealthy foreigners, who buy up apartments in search of their own little piece of Venetian charm.”
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Please write to your City Council

shead@nola.gov, sgguidry@nola.gov, jasonwilliams@nola.gov, lcantrell@nola.gov, districtc@nola.gov, jcbrossett@nola.gov, jagray@nola.gov
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For Carl Orend, what was supposed to be a dream weekend in New Orleans recently took a horrible turn when he arrived at the Mid-City home he rented through a short-term rental website. “The hygiene of the place was very bad. There was trash everywhere,” he said. “The place was very dirty. The back door didn’t lock properly, didn’t even close properly.”

According to city ordinance, it’s illegal to rent a property for fewer than 60 days in the French Quarter and 30 days in the rest of the city. A spokesman said the city investigates when it receives complaints about a property, and sends violation letters when applicable.

Visit the link below for the rest of the story by Scott Satchfield:
http://www.fox8live.com/story/24016980/f
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Please send your comments about short term rentals to:
cpcinfo@nola.gov, jasonwilliams@nola.gov, shead@nola.gov, sgguidry@nola.gov, lcantrell@nola.gov, districtc@nola.gov, councildistrictd@nola.gov, jagray@nola.gov, rdrivers@nola.gov, mayor@nola.gov, ryanberni@nola.gov

Please write to your City Council

shead@nola.gov, sgguidry@nola.gov, jasonwilliams@nola.gov, lcantrell@nola.gov, districtc@nola.gov, jcbrossett@nola.gov, jagray@nola.gov

REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE WITH A SHORT TERM RENTAL

Michael Cloke posted the message below on Facebook and has authorized the message to be posted here.
Below is some real world experience with a short term rental…

“I have witnessed first hand what short-term renters do to the neighborhood. The only person that benefits from such illegal activities is the landlord. And that is only if the illegal occupants don’t destroy anyone’s property.

Next time some genius suggests that hotels, or the hospitality industry should contribute more fees/taxes to police patrols during such events, just remember; your neighbor skirted the law, and quite possibly deprived you and your family adequate protection, because the funds weren’t there.

When my neighbor rented her basement apt for Jazz Fest several years ago, the out-of-state tenants took a crap in my yard, littered my yard and garden with cigarette butts and beer cans, food wrappers, etc. I’m guessing someone, or several someones peed in my bushes, or poured stale beer in them; they were ruined. My insurance would not pay for it. My neighbor’s ins. wouldn’t pay either~~~the tenants were there illegally (ins rarely pays for a policyholder’s illegal activities). These people who come to town for a weekend or week, are generally here to party! It is a FESTIVAL! Whether it’s JF, Boogaloo, Voodoo, Endymion, etc. And it is not their property, nor are we their neighbors.

It will take more than “permit” fees and hotel taxes to handle the liabilities these transients bring to our neighborhoods. Check your homeowners ins. Such activities may not be covered, and you’ll be stuck holding the bag. It’s is not the same as having guests in your home; you are operating a business that could fall under the legal definition of a B & B or a hostel.

If I knew that my neighbors were renting their place out, say 3,4,or 5 times a year, to people who come here from out-of-state to party, I might not be so inclined to move into the neighborhood.

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Please send your comments about short term rentals to:
cpcinfo@nola.gov, jasonwilliams@nola.gov, shead@nola.gov, sgguidry@nola.gov, lcantrell@nola.gov, districtc@nola.gov, councildistrictd@nola.gov, jagray@nola.gov, rdrivers@nola.gov, mayor@nola.gov, ryanberni@nola.gov

Please write to your City Council

shead@nola.gov, sgguidry@nola.gov, jasonwilliams@nola.gov, lcantrell@nola.gov, districtc@nola.gov, jcbrossett@nola.gov, jagray@nola.gov
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