Fairbnb.ca Coalition encouraged by proposed regulations for short-term rentals in Vancouver
Members of the Fairbnb.ca Coalition express support for city’s approach to regulating home-sharing at Vancouver City Council
(VANCOUVER) The residents of Vancouver had their first opportunity to share their opinions on the City of Vancouver’s proposed short-term rental regulations today at a committee meeting of Vancouver City Council. Members of the Fairbnb.ca Coalition attended the meeting and made formal comments to Council, expressing their support for the direction of the city’s proposed regulations for short-term rentals.
“Increasingly, hotel workers are finding it harder to live in the city in which they work, said Michelle Travis, a researcher with UNITE HERE Local 40, the union for hospitality workers in BC and a member of the Fairbnb Coalition. “While we negotiate good contracts for our members, that alone does not keep pace with the City’s rising housing costs. Our members are feeling squeezed, daily, by the rising cost of housing and other basic necessities in Vancouver.”
According to Ulrike Rodrigues, regulations are needed to keep residential units from being converted to hotel use for transient tourists. Rodrigues is a member of the Fairbnb.ca Coalition and the administrator of the Facebook group Homes Not Hotels, which she formed after the proliferation of short-term rental use in multiple units the Mount Pleasant condo building in which she lives and owns a unit.
Let’s work together to reclaim our city’s existing affordable housing,” Ulrike said in her comments to City Council. “Let’s return our shared, residential buildings to residents.”
According to the Staff Report, the city will undertake a public consultation process in the coming months, while the implementation proposal and proposed bylaw amendments are expected to come back to City Council in the first quarter of 2017.
Read the City of Vancouver Staff Report, “Regulating Short-Term Rentals in Vancouver,” here: http://council.vancouver.ca/20161005/documents/pspc1c.pdf
For more information, please contact:
- Thorben Wieditz at 647-409-8997 or fairbnb@fairbnb.ca
- @fairbnbcanada on Twitter
- Fairbnbcanada on Facebook