Over 300 tenants and housing advocates rallied outside City Hall Thursday to once again protest Intro 1107, a proposed bill supported by Airbnb, which opponents say could jeopardize tens of thousands of rental units across New York City.
This demonstration, organized by the grassroots coalition Tenants Not Tourists, was supported by several NYC Council members and local assembly members. A letter signed by 43 organizations advocating for tenant rights, urging them to reject the bill that would weaken enforcement on short-term rentals.
According to the coalition, Intro 1107 threatens to worsen an already dire housing crisis by allowing landlords to withdraw significant portions of their rental units from the market.
“The City Council has promised to address our historic housing crisis and provide stable, affordable homes, but it cannot do that by passing legislation that would pull the rug out from under tenants,” Darius Gordon, executive director of the Met Council on Housing, said at the Jan. 23 rally.
According to Gordon, the bill could create loopholes that lead to increased private equity acquisitions of apartments and inflated rental prices.
The coalition emphasized that passing Intro 1107 would roll back protections established by Local Law 18 of 2021, which was designed to regulate short-term rentals effectively. This law required hosts to register, thus reducing illegal rentals that have burdened the local housing market.
As the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement reported, enforcement efforts have reduced illegal Airbnb listings significantly since September 2023.
Critics, including NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, also voiced strong opposition to the bill.
“Rolling back the strongest Airbnb protections in the country will not solve the affordable housing crisis that is pushing New Yorkers out of the city,” Lander said.
“This bill places real estate interests ahead of the needs of tenants,” Manhattan Assembly Member Harvey Epstein added. “The city is already struggling with record-low vacancy rates, and this bill would make it even more challenging for tenants to find affordable places to live.”
Young advocates also marked their presence, emphasizing the impact on younger New Yorkers facing unaffordable rents.
“NYC is in a housing crisis, and our members across the city are feeling the pressure of rents that are already too high. Intro 1107 would only make this problem worse, causing rents to rise more and weakening protections for working-class tenants while allowing AirBnB to profit from this housing crisis. We’re calling on the NYC Council to reject AirBnB’s bill now,” Jamell Henderson, regional council chair of Citizen Action NYC, said at the rally.
On the other hand, those in support of the bill say it would impact a small percentage of New Yorkers who want to rent out their primary home, therefore it wouldn’t take homes off of the market.
“This bill aims to fix an overly restrictive short-term rental law that, in the last year, has failed to decrease rents in NYC and only increased hotel rates exorbitantly for travelers,” Nathan Rotman, director of policy for Airbnb said in a statement. “The big hotel chains are using scare tactics to exploit one of the biggest social challenges of our time to boost their profits with sky high nightly rates – it’s time to fix a broken law that hasn’t helped housing but has padded hotel industry pockets at everyone else’s expense.”
Rotman pointed fingers at Tenants Not Tourists, claiming they are supported by a hotel funding group and their true efforts are to “protect soaring hotel prices instead of advocating for real solutions”.
“It’s important to ask who is funding this alleged tenants group that has the funds necessary to buy television advertising and whose bottom line those funders are working to protect. This is clearly about protecting the rising prices hotels are charging in New York City, not about tenants,” Rotman said.
The Tenants Not Tourists coalition is seemingly gaining traction, but no new City Council members have joined as cosponsors of the bill, reflecting the growing discontent surrounding it.
Advocates urge the City Council to resist what they perceive as a corporate takeover of residential spaces, prioritizing tenants over transient tourists.
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