Saturday, August 1, 2015

AirBnB is gobbling up affordable housing


From the Daily News:

Airbnb is gobbling up a huge chunk of apartments in some of the city’s hottest zip codes — snagging as much as 20% of vacancies in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to a new study by two affordable housing advocates.

The East Village led the list with a whopping 28% of its units going as illegal hotel rooms on the popular home-sharing site, according to an analysis from New York Communities for Change and Real Affordability For All.

The 20 most popular Airbnb neighborhoods — in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens — have lost 10% of their available housing units to Airbnb, according to the study.

Airbnb has maintained that its users are overwhelmingly tenants looking to make a quick buck when out of town, but the study found that the average rental was available for 247 days a year, and rented 109 nights a year.

That number would support criticism that huge numbers of shady landlords were using the website to convert rental units into illegal hotel rooms, exacerbating the city’s housing crisis to make a profit.

It’s illegal to rent out your apartment when you are not home, but you can rent out a room when you are, according to the law.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

With rent gouging running rampant, a strapped renter does what he can do. Some offer their pads to travelers to help make their own rent.

JQ said...

A repulsive story about a flagrantly corrupt company. And could the Daily News find some people that are enraged, maybe find some homeless families or those truly struggling to find a place.

But in a way this video served a purpose and with the obliviousness and ignorance of that hipster doofus wearing a high school shirt and lame hat he unwittingly got his friend and the realtor in trouble. Well if the Mayor Big Slow's D.O.B. will ever get around to doing actual regulating .

It's clear that that woman is not going to leave that place, certainly because of the insane costs of rent in the towns they desire to live in, obviously the east village in this case or in fucking Brooklyn. Which means that it's on to Ridgewood and Glendale (NY Times, we await your article with baited breath).

I really see no future living here, because the 5 boroughs are turning into a goddamn resort and theme park. And the city is letting it happen. Remember when the Blaz said people outside of NY value the job he has done since elected. Here's proof that airbnb and all those hedonistic greedy landlords oops hosts will continue getting a taste of the lucre with impunity.

Anonymous said...

You fucking piece of shit scumbag lobbyist. Do you really think that you're going to come on a neighborhood blog like this and spout off trash like that and not get called out? Exactly how much did your mom drink when she was pregnant?

If that's really your stance I hope you get evicted and the attorney general sues you on behalf of the people of New York. The fact that the only remaining affordable housing in NY is being converted to hotels profits only the developers and landlords the renters carry on their backs like serfs every fucking day. And for the 5% of listings that originate as they're supposed to, those people can rot in hell with everyone else who's conspired to make the NY rental market a mafia racketeering job.

Oh, and P.S., fuck you.
-somethingstructural

georgetheatheist said...

Just happened to see an old friend doing shopping in the Ditmars area yesterday. I told her to hop in the car and gave her a quick tour of the Steinway Mansion site yesterday complete with historical shpiel and to see what's to be seen. She lived in Manhattan around 10 years ago, couldn't afford the rent and moved to Astoria (near Pistilli on Ditmars) and paying, for her, high rent. She was dumbfounded about the Mansion's existance and any of its significance. First thing she says to me to me: "Will they be renting out apartments in it?"