WHO WE ARE:
HALA is a diverse coalition of Angelenos who support responsible hosting and fair regulations. We are a group of hosts that have joined with house cleaners and small local businesses that has mobilized over 2000 members in just 2 weeks and growing fast. We are a grassroots organization not affiliated with any of the platforms or funded by them. We are fully volunteer based. We will be able to mobilize hosts by district, neighborhood, and whether they are under the HSO (Home Sharing Ordinance), RSO (Rent Stabilization Ordinance aka Rent Control) or the proposed VRO (Vacation Rental Ordinance). We are a strong coalition of voters that are organized and serious about saving our homes, our livelihoods, protecting those of our house cleaners and who support our local businesses. And we are highly motivated voters.
WHAT IS THE CITY’S GOAL WITH THE HSO?:
Is the City’s purpose in passing the HSO to protect affordable housing? Does the city think that thousands of affordable units will suddenly go on the market?
RSO hosts that homeshare are not putting units back on the market because they were never on the market and they are needed for kids coming back from college, parents or friends that visit, or for personal use such as a home office, etc.
Any vacant housing that will become available because of Commercial Operators or Rental Arbitrage being shut down will be market-rate, which by definition is not affordable.
If indeed the city is so concerned about the RSO housing stock, why is the city allowing corporate developers to eliminate RSO housing stock, such as The Whitely Building in Hollywood, a 40 unit RSO building that Planning fast tracked without doing an EIR - which will impact senior housing right next door - and will displace 100 tenants so that a developer can turn it into a mini-hotel.
Reservations Hollywood Hotel Project Faces Appeal From Rent Control Tenants
WHY WE NEED TO DELAY REGISTRATION:
Many Angelinos have turned to responsible homesharing in order to stay in their homes - because of job insecurity, aging out of the workplace, illness, etc. The 99% paid an additional 90 billion in taxes last year. It is getting harder and harder to get by.
Enforcement of the HSO on mom and pop hosts needs to be delayed until it is amended to be fair and equitable to all constituents. Enforcement should begin now on the commercial operators.
Eliminate the per night booking cap so hosts relying on renting more than one room a night will be able to.
The $89 + $850 yearly fee is too high - especially for hosts that rent out more than 120 days but less than 365. We need a tiered system.
The proposed additional nightly fee of $5/night is especially onerous on hosts charging only $35-70/nt. For hosts that are booked 70% of the year that’s an additional $1280/year. We recommend a .5% nightly fee.
Hosts already pay additional costs, such as more than twice the cost of their homeowner’s insurance.
The City’s registration site needs to be in multiple languages - in Spanish at a minimum. Within 2 weeks of HALA posting our website we had a Spanish version.
Long wait time to get questions answered online and on the phone.
Great confusion about what will happen to hosts and cleaners come Nov 1st.
Venice hosts were promised that their converted garages and rec rooms were considered part of their primary residence, but that is not clear in the HSO or in the registration process.
There’s no way to apply for an extended permit, because they are still integrating the agencies that share info and some hosts have already booked those nights and they are worried.
Zimas is listing non-RSO properties as RSO and vice-versa. Lots of mistakes.
Concerns with Host Compliance. This is of great concern for privacy issues and the spending of the city. The city is paying 1.5 million per year for this company’s service, so they can pay $2 a piece to hire out fourth party workers on Mturk at less than minimum wage with no background checks. They are being authorized to collect data including when our home is vacant or occupied, leaving owners vulnerable to all sorts of theft and break in etc. This is a breach of our privacy and protection.
People Paid To Dox Airbnb Addresses Host Compliance
2. WHY WE NEED TO ALLOW PRIMARY RESIDENCE HOMESHARING IN RSO OWNER OCCUPIED OR RSO TENANT OCCUPIED RESIDENTIAL PARCELS (4 OR FEWER UNITS):
RSO hosts that homeshare will not be putting units back on the LTR market because they never rented our their spare room long term and never will. They need their spare room for when their kids come back from college on break or in the summer, for when their friends or parents visit, or for personal use such as a home office, etc.
The city is allowing thousands of ADU permits to be given without letting owners know they are triggering their residential R1 properties and Single Family Homes (built before 1978) to be under RSO and they will not be able to homeshare any longer.
An RSO owner homeshares in order to cover costs of mortgage, taxes, insurance, water bill, maintenance and repair. In older buildings (which are mostly RSO), the costs of a new roof, seismically retrofitting, replacing old plumbing, termites, etc., are substantial and being able to STR allows homeowners to keep up their properties - which has a wider benefit to the ecosystem.
An RSO owner homeshares because they have a tenant in a 2nd unit paying as little as $450 a month and without being able to homeshare to help subsidize such low rents they will be forced to sell. On top of that, buyers are not interested in properties with low paying rents so not only does it lower their selling price, but the seller is likely to offer tenants cash for keys further displacing renters who will be priced out of their neighborhood. Or worse, the new owner will Ellis act everyone and raze the property to the ground in order to build 7 luxury townhomes that sell for 1.2M each because planning has made the process so much easier with the Small Lot Ordinance - an ordinance that used to be called the Small Lot Ordinance for Affordable Home Ownership.
They get a job out of town, but are coming back and forth on long weekends or when they are not working so they can’t rent their home long term but would like to cover some of the costs of being away.
Their parents are aging and need assistance. They fly back home once a month for a week to check up on them and take care of things. Being able to STR helps cover this expense.
They want to go home to visit family for 2 weeks at the holidays, which is the most expensive time to travel. Why can’t they STR for 2 weeks so that they can help make ends meet?
3. WHY WE NEED TO ALLOW STR IN ONE VACATION/SECONDARY RESIDENCE OWNED BY THE HOST - EITHER A SINGLE FAMILY HOME, AN ADU, OR AN RSO UNIT ON AN OWNER OCCUPIED RESIDENTIAL PARCEL (4 OR FEWER UNITS):
Homeowners need flexibility in terms of when they sell a property due to life changes such as a new job out of town, marriage, growing family, elderly parents moving in or also in the case of job loss, divorce, major illness or due to the timing of the market. STR allows them the ability to manage what for most is the single biggest asset they will ever have and may have made great sacrifices to hang on to. HAVE WORKED ALL THEIR LIVES TO ACQUIRE.
Vacation homes are used by the owner for personal use throughout the year. Being able to STR them in between not only provides homes for visitors to LA but contributes to a whole ecosystem.
Many hosts cannot afford the costs of owning their 2-4 unit buildings without being able to STR in a secondary unit. The mortgage, insurance, property tax, water bill, maintenance and repair is so expensive, that if these hosts were to LTR, they would be underwater and forced to sell. *****(underwater means something else, we need to remove that word)
The costs of a new roof, seismically retrofitting, replacing old plumbing, termites, etc., are substantial and this allows homeowners to keep up their properties which benefits a the entire neighborhood, and the greater LA economy.
Homeowners who have purchased a property in the last few years find that LTR will not even cover the basic costs. God forbid you find out you suddenly need a massive repair on your pre 1978 built multi-unit. Why can’t those owners STR one dwelling to offset costs and keep their home?
Angelinos benefit mightily from having short term housing just down the street to house family that is visiting when having a baby; to meet the fiancé; or who are in town for a wedding; to stay in while waiting to close on a house or after selling a house; when work is being done on their homes; during catastrophes such as last year’s wildfires, when many hosts opened up their homes under the Airbnb Open Homes program providing free housing while still being covered by Airbnb.
PROPOSED SOLUTION:
The TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) that we pay could be a major solution to the affordable housing crisis. The TOT was originally supposed to go towards affordable housing - why did the city authorise moving the TOT over to the general fund?
We calculated that with the $50M/yr in TOT you could offer:
12,500 studios at $800 + $800 from the $10M in TOT = $1600 to the developer
16,666 1 bedrooms at $1200 + $1200 from the $20M TOT = $2400 to the developer
11,764 2 bedrooms at $1700 + $1700 from the $20M TOT = $3400 to the develop
This would create 41,000 actually affordable units per year, roughy 7 times the estimated RSO units taken off the market for STR.
Summary
The HSO will do nothing to solve the affordable housing crisis and will instead increase it, by throwing tens of thousands of hosts into housing insecurity as well as thousands of cleaners.