Vacation Rentals and Home Sharing: Matters of Justice
Editor:
The City Council's recent vote on vacation rentals and home sharing sent a profound message to the nation. While much larger cities around the country have struggled to respond adequately to the problems posed by Airbnband illegal vacation rentals, the Council showed that even a small city can prevail over powerful economic pressures if the cause is right, if its citizens and elected officials are well informed, and if sufficient debate is allowed for genuine public scrutiny of the issues.
And the cause is right. Ensuring affordable housing — protecting it from the encroachments of illegal vacation rentals — is an issue of economic justice insofar as it helps the city retain its identity as an inclusive and diverse community. The Council's vote helped fend off some of the pressures that could turn the city into an exclusive enclave.
Nevertheless, a struggle continues between a powerful economic interest and community self-determination. Though the Council did permit home-sharing (i.e. where the host remains on site), and though it created a fair and sound enforcement framework to regulate this sharing, Airbnbcontinues to sow confusion and doubt about the efficacy of any enforcement. And neighboring cities like Los Angeles haven't even begun to formulate their own responses to the issue.
Santa Monica took a bold step forward, but it is only one step. Vision and firmness are needed to ensure that values of justice, inclusiveness, and self-determination continue to prevail.
Andrew Moss
CLUE-Santa Monica (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice)
