Short-term rental madness

It’s astonishing that some people think Colin Basran and his councillors represent progressivism. The winner at the hearing on short-term rentals was not the progressive cause of housing justice.  

It was, Coun. Stack observed, the Airbnb lobby, who are now “laughing all the way to the bank.”  

Stack and all but one of his colleagues voted in favour of Airbnb.

If Airbnb won, who lost and what did they lose?  Renters United certainly lost in that we weren’t allowed to speak.  

In a transparent move in advance of the hearing, we referred to hearing procedures described in Bylaw 9200 and said we’d need three five-minute blocks to present all our information. We also disclosed in advance the full presentation in order for it to become part of the public record.  

Apparently, council did not want us to proceed. The mayor violated the bylaw, as well as the statement describing hearing procedures included in the March 12 agenda, when he announced at the beginning no member of the public would be allowed to speak for more than five minutes.

It’s disturbing that Coun. Sieben subsequently bemoaned the idea that no renters attended the hearing. You can hear his words on the livestreamed audio recording of the hearing, but you can’t hear the verbal protest I registered before leaving. The city had somehow failed to turn on the recording device until well into the staff presentation.

Employers, employees, long-term renters and homebuyers also lost. Research shows that through complex economic behaviour, short-term rentals negatively impact both housing availability and affordability, affecting these groups.  

A lot of mom-and-dad type mortgage holders are today celebrating the fact that council directed staff to permit short-term rentals in suites and carriage houses. What they don’t seem to understand is that they’re deep into their mortgages due in no small measure to short-term rental activity.

About 70 per cent of Kelowna’s long-term renters live in suites and carriage houses. Numerous speakers, including elected politicians, justified jeopardizing this housing supply by saying changes to the Residential Tenancy Act have made it impossible to get rid of bad tenants. Consequently, no one wants to rent to them any longer. 

Renters United confronted this myth when we privately told council months ago the only significant change to it has been elimination of fixed term leases with mandatory move-out clauses. Even Landlord BC supported legislation closing this loophole, which allowed unethical landlords to falsely create vacancies and increase rents.

Kelowna has effectively created an STR industry that will make us ridiculous in the eyes of other jurisdictions.

Dianne Varga, Renters United Kelowna