Following HOME 2 passage, advocates seek Council action on short-term rentals

Members of the Tourism Commission are pushing City Council to move forward with an agreement with short-term rental platforms that could make it possible for the city to more easily regulate the thousands of unlicensed homes operating as lodging businesses across Austin.

Earlier this month, Bishop Chappell – a commissioner and also a member of the commission’s STR working group – reminded city leaders of the list of 10 recommendations approved in February, which focus on increasing adoption of STR licenses issued by the city, addressing enforcement issues with problem STR homes and improving communication between all stakeholder groups.

As Council prepared in early May for the consideration of the HOME 2 slate of land use changes, Chappell said at the time that attention shouldn’t be taken away from passing regulations that many Council members have supported in private meetings on the matter.

“The struggle has been getting folks to rally behind it because we can only do so much from our position as commissioners. It’s really (about) trying to push City Council offices towards movement. The mayor wants to lead it, which is obviously great, especially an initiative like this. Land use came up within the mix, and I think it just put STRs on a back burner,” Chappell said. “It was around the operational frustrations and start and stops that we see with the city, from the city manager’s office in terms of giving directives as well as from City Council giving initiative and direction to the city manager and to city staff, and city staff wondering, ‘How is this going to impact me?’ You almost need to have all of these answers before you’re able to develop a process for your solution.”

Chappell said the talks he and other working group members have had with staff in assorted Council offices suggest it could be late this year or into 2025 before action on STRs is taken, aside from any amendments included in related policy through the rest of the year. With some estimates suggesting there are more than 10,000 unlicensed STR sites operating throughout the city, Chappell noted that could translate into more than $25 million in uncollected Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue each year.

“My personal frustration stems from having ready, available policy that we can go forward with that has vast support, but we just can’t get in the same room and talk about it and push it forward because we’re constantly stopped,” he said. “For land use to take a priority in lieu of short-term rental – it should not be an either/or type of situation.”

The increasing presence of STRs has added to displacement and gentrification issues in many areas of East Austin, which is part of the motivation for advocacy group Go Austin/Vamos Austin starting a push for an anti-displacement overlay to be passed in the wake of the HOME 2 changes.

Monica Guzmán, policy director for GAVA, said City Council members have routinely cited recent court cases limiting cities’ ability to regulate STRs as one of the primary reasons for not reaching formal agreements with STR platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo. She said recent policy approved in Plano could serve as a model for Austin to move forward with policy that sets clear guidelines for the industry.

“I think they’re using the 5th Circuit ruling as an excuse to not really look at what can be done,” she said. “I don’t see any reason to oppose an (STR) agreement if it protects housing stock, especially in areas that are already vulnerable, such as Austin’s Eastern Crescent. I would want to see some form of restriction, such as that if there’s an STR, it has to be an owner-occupied property, which means speculator investors, investors and LLCs wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Photo by Joe Mabel, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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