The New Orleans City Council will vote Thursday on an overhaul of short-term rental regulations and it all comes down to one decision: Owner-occupied properties.
Housing, community and preservation advocates say the only way to keep neighborhoods from turning into blocks of short-term rentals devoid of long time residents and local character is to maintain the owner of a short-term rental also live on the property.
WWL-TV Political Analyst Clancy DuBos says "The previous council adopted STR rules that we now know did not do enough to protect our neighborhoods. This Thursday the council can correct that mistake."
"In residential neighborhoods, the proposed changes would limit STR's to owner-occupants with homestead exemptions," DuBos said.
Conversions of properties into short-term rentals have gone through neighborhoods in other cities like wildfire. Loose regulations particularly on commercial properties have seen a proliferation of everything from warehouses to apartment buildings turned into 'Airbnb' hotels.
In the seaside community of Venice, California long term residents of low-rent apartments were suddenly evicted as entire properties flipped to Airbnbs.
Locally, concerns over storefronts being converted to STR's have residents saying the local flavor of a community, usually reflected in locally run busiensses, is threatened.
In his comments to WWL-TV DuBos summed up his call for preserving the owner-occupied stipulation saying, "That would go a long way toward stabilizing neighborhoods that have been overrun by out-of-town investors who buy up properties, jack up prices and force out locals."