Opinion: the city turns a blind eye as urgently needed housing becomes Airbnb “mini-hotels”

Signs protest against short-term rentals. Courtesy of Save San Diego Neighborhoods

San Diego is inundated with a new wave of short-term vacation rentals as building owners rent apartments as short-term vacation units.

This is in addition to the 16,000 single-family homes in San Diego that our city auditor estimates are currently being used as short-term vacation rentals. So here we are, drastically reducing our housing stock and artificially inflating rents for San Diego, in the midst of a historic housing crisis.

Our city attorney has declared short-term vacation rentals in residential areas illegal according to a memo dated March 15, 2017.

It is time to apply these laws.

It’s more than a beach community issue. A recent day on Sonder.com Website, a two-bedroom apartment at the Millennium in Mission Valley was listed for $ 395 per night for the first weekend in August. At Louisiana in North Park, apartments were priced between $ 208 and $ 274. Sonder’s competitors are Domio, Stay Alfred and Barsala.

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