Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman wants to shoot the proverbial two birds with one stone.
In June, the city’s housing commissioner will propose to legalize short-term rentals brokered by web sites such as Airbnb and VBRB [VRBO} by requiring the operators to pay local lodging fees.
In exchange, the city would dedicate 25 percent of its share of lodging taxes to support creation of low income housing in a bid to head off complaints that vacation rentals remove units from the inventory of affordable housing, under Saltzman’s proposal.
Elsewhere in the U.S., short-term rentals have exacerbated housing shortages as owners evict existing tenants in order to turn a larger profit advertising units to tourists via sites such as Airbnb and VBRB [VRBO].
