Cambridge is moving toward more enforceable regulations around short-term rentals such as those posted on popular vacation rental sites Airbnb and Vrbo. City councillors voted unanimously on Monday to request zoning language in line with recommendations by Inspectional Services, including that hosts must stay in the unit when renting individual rooms.
One motivation for this change is that more than half of the estimated 515 short-term rental units in Cambridge are unregistered – violating Cambridge’s short-term rental rules – and there’s no way to really enforce regulations and punish people breaking the law.
Cambridge started regulating short-term rental units in August 2017 through a zoning ordinance, motivated by concerns that investors would buy desperately needed housing to use as Airbnbs or other short-term rentals. An additional concern was that the rentals hurt local hotels.
The short-term rental ordinance returned last September after residents reported violations that were practically unenforceable by Inspectional Services. Upasana Unni, a resident of Wellington-Harrington, was a public commenter who expressed concern at the time.
“One of my neighbors is a notorious investor-landlord who runs multiple short-term rentals on my block, which exacerbates the housing affordability crisis in Cambridge,” Unni said. “But today, the ISD has no way to revoke or prohibit their registrations.”
Rewriting the ordinance was tabled with the end of the City Council term. Now, with councillors Patty Nolan and Burhan Azeem bringing up the issue again, Unni also was back expressed her dissatisfaction at Monday’s meeting.
“On our residential street, we’ve experienced drunk Airbnb’ers vomiting on the sidewalk, frequent parking violations, trash being thrown in our trash bins, partying and music late into the night. Instead of a resident, we are simply living next to a business,” Unni said.
“These investors are taking away valuable housing stock from long-term renters in a city where we are experiencing an absolute crisis of housing affordability,” she added.
Regina Chung, who lives on the same street, agreed.
“This past week alone has had people talking loudly out in front of the house at 3 a.m., and one of my neighbors had to instruct one of their renters to move their car that was parked illegally on the wrong side of the road,” Chung said in a public comment. “The short-term rental ordinance as written, is inadequate.”
City Manager Yi-An Huang acknowledged that the rules need to be made clearer and more enforceable.
“We have diligently tried to bring some of these properties into greater compliance, but it’s been pretty difficult. A number of loopholes have made it really difficult to enforce,” Huang said.
Part of the issue is that some hosts aren’t aware of existing regulations around short-term rentals. The cost of registration is $100 per year; housing inspector Jimmy DeAngelo said that he doubts the cost of registration dissuades people from applying.
“I think some people genuinely just don’t know that they have to register,” DeAngelo said. “And the other people that don’t want to register probably don’t live at the address, so they wouldn’t be eligible to begin with.”
“Narrow changes”
The recommended changes include, among others, changing the definition of “short-term” to focus on unregistered weekend or weeklong stays; revoking registration if a property draws three or more violation notices within six months; and requiring a state ID instead of any photo ID to register.
For the most part, these are minor changes.
“The suggestions given by the city manager’s office are both very helpful and very tailored. These are narrow changes,” Azeem said.
Following Boston’s footsteps
The recommendations from Inspectional Services specifically calls out comparisons to nearby cities including Somerville, Boston and Quincy, which have their own short-term rental ordinances. For example, Somerville and Quincy also have provisions revoking a property’s registration in the case of repeated violations.
One recommendation is to require that booking agents and websites post only listings with proven registration. Inspectional Services acknowledged that this change is more complex than the others, but it follows in the footsteps of Boston and its lawsuit with Airbnb.
Boston was sued by Airbnb in 2018 over what the company called “draconian” and “heavy-handed” short-term rental regulations. Boston agreed to a settlement in 2019 that introduced a function on Airbnb to require that Boston hosts display their registration numbers on their listings.
“Boston and Airbnb entered into a settlement agreement that resulted in some of what Boston was looking for, but not all of it,” city solicitor Megan Bayer told councillors. “So it is sort of an unsettled area if challenged by one of the hosting sites.”
A stronger
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Oh Cambridge and Cambridgeday, you make me laugh.
Just moving down the article:
1) “An additional concern was that the rentals hurt local hotels.” – Except of course for the “hotel” in Central Square which operates as an unstaffed AirBnB.
2) “here’s no way to really enforce regulations and punish people breaking the law.” – Seems like a running theme in Cambridge. Overflowing apartment trash bins with uncomposted food in them? No tickets, no enforcement. Consistent violation of noise ordinance from clubs in Central? No tickets, no enforcement.
3) ““This past week alone has had people talking loudly out in front of the house at 3 a.m., and one of my neighbors had to instruct one of their renters to move their car that was parked illegally on the wrong side of the road,” – Try living in Central square. At 3 am the partiers leave, at 4 am the trucks pull in front of McDonald’s and start unloading. And if a car is parked illegally, you call and get it towed. This is the price of living in a densely populated city.
1,000 apartments is a mighty big during a housing shortage. Maybe we should focus on regulations that would apply real pressure on landlords to lease these as normal apartments? Don’t increase the annual fee to $1,000. Instead think about $10,000…or $20,000…or…. Then consider whether an apartment that might be generating $200K+/year in income is assessed properly…
The law definitely needs teeth added and enforcement, as well as health inspections.
These short time rentals need to be reduced so that the majority properties involved enter into the regular longer term rental cycles that other properties operate in and should be taxed as commercial enterprises if they are not. These are scofflaws and tax evaders running these properties.