The New York City Council ended 2024 passing ‘City of Yes’ that promises to build more than 80,000 new homes and help alleviate the city’s housing crisis. But now, they’re immediately reversing course: a new Council bill introduced written specifically for the tech behemoth Airbnb is threatening to take tens-of-thousands of homes off the housing market and make life far less affordable for working people.
The Council must reject this terrible bill. As a lifelong tenant, I know first-hand how millions of everyday New Yorkers like me are already suffering from an affordability crisis that’s making it more expensive than ever to rent a home. Taking even more homes away and incentivizing short-term rentals over long-term tenants would only make things worse.
Right now, the number of rentable units across the city is at a historically low 1.4% — down from 4.5% just three years ago (while the rate of available lower-income homes is even lower). And that shortage is causing rents to skyrocket everywhere. In just the last five years, the median cost of rent for studios, and 1- and 2-bedroom apartments in New York City rose a ridiculous 16.3%. Here in Brooklyn, that means you’d have to make over $150,000 to comfortably afford the median rent cost. The median household income is around half that number.
Every unit matters in this housing crisis and New Yorkers need help to weather this crisis but Airbnb’s bill would leave them out in the cold. Voters continue to overwhelmingly cite the high cost of living as their top concern, and vast majorities of New Yorkers now say that both access to affordable housing and the cost of living have gotten worse in the last year.
But companies like Airbnb would only deepen the crisis if allowed back into our neighborhoods. For years, these booking service platforms made it easier for landlords to illegally convert their homes from rentable units and turn them into mini-hotels that served tourists instead of tenants like me. According to data from the city, at its peak, at least 43,000 illegal units were listed as short-term rentals on Airbnb that would otherwise have been occupied by everyday New Yorkers.
Thankfully, the Council took action and passed Local Law 18 to rein in the problem and return our homes to the people who live here. That law, which went into effect last year, strengthened enforcement against short-term rentals already in violation of existing zoning and housing regulations. And it gave the City the tools it needed to enforce existing state regulations, penalizing the bad landlords (which tenants know all too well) who openly flouted the city’s laws.
The law has been a success. Since it went into effect last year, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in listings on Airbnb and other short-term rental websites — the majority of which are now available for New Yorkers to rent again and many already filled by long-term tenants again.
But now, this new bill would undo regulations on all 1- and 2-family homes — which make up 29% of all our homes (and 14% of all rental units citywide) — and make them available to convert back into Airbnbs. It would immediately take tens-of-thousands of apartments back off the housing market and drive rents up to new record highs. What’s worse: it would get rid of requirements that owners are present when someone is staying in their home, making all New Yorkers (even homeowners!) vulnerable to predatory private equity companies trying to buy up our homes and turn them into mini-hotels.
And while small homeowners deserve help to stay in their homes, too, we simply cannot afford to pass legislation that would exacerbate the housing crisis for all New Yorkers. Intro 1107 is designed to look like a simple carve-out, but it’s really Airbnb’s plan to deregulate the entire market and slide the rug out from under tenants fighting to keep rents affordable. Instead, renters need housing units preserved, and homeowners who are struggling financially need mortgage assistance and other help from the government.
Instead of playing into Airbnb’s scheme, our lawmakers must stand with the vast majority of New Yorkers — tenants and renters — and prioritize legislation that leads to more affordable housing, not less. And while there is still much work to be done to address the housing and affordability crises affecting us all, rejecting legislation like Intro 1107 is an easy way to ensure we don’t move backwards.
New York has already stood up to the $85 billion dollar company before, and we can do it again. The City Council should stand with New Yorkers in need and guarantee our homes remain available to the people who live and work here – not tech and real estate investors trying to get rich off our backs.
