Home Sharing or Illegal Hotel?

Like many companies in the “sharing economy,” Airbnb prides itself on “disrupting” the traditional marketplace—but at what cost to New York’s affordable housing?

1 minute read

December 22, 2017, 10:00 AM PST

By UrbanOmnibus


Airbnb

OuiShare / Shutterstock

“New Yorkers agree: Airbnb is great for New York City,” declared ads that papered the city’s subway system. But is it really? In the tenth Housing Brass Tacks discussion, Patrick Tyrrell of the nonprofit legal services firm Mobilization for Justice breaks down the impact of short-term rentals on New York’s housing market:

  1. Explosion of short-term rentals
  2. Illegal hotels, from SRO to Airbnb
  3. Patchwork housing laws
  4. “Do we want to peg affordable housing to the tourist economy?”


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