San Francisco and Eleven Other Cities Support Santa Monica’s Defense of its Home Sharing Ordinance
July 18, 2019 3:51 PM
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Last week, San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, and Santa Cruz were joined by cities across the country in supporting Santa Monica’s Home Sharing Ordinance as a balanced approach to protecting housing stock for residents in the face of a housing shortage and affordability crisis.
The amicus brief comes in response to a petition by Airbnb and HomeAway.com calling for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its March 13, 2019 ruling upholding the Home Sharing Ordinance against claims that it was preempted by the federal Communications Decency Act. On July 1, 2019, the City filed a response asking the court to deny the petition because the “panel correctly applied this Court’s precedent to hold that the City of Santa Monica’s ‘Home-Sharing Ordinance’ – an essential element of City efforts to preserve housing in the face of rising residential rents and unauthorized vacation rentals -- is not preempted.”
The amicus brief was filed by San Francisco; the District of Columbia; the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore; Cook County, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Gary, Indiana; Oakland; Sacramento; Santa Cruz; Seattle; and Somerville, Massachusetts, all cities and jurisdictions across the country “striving to preserve and expand affordable housing for their residents.” Public Rights Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to supporting local and state government efforts to protect the rights of their communities, was also part of the filing. The brief cites the “proliferation of short-term rentals” in these Cities that has reduced “the number of rental units otherwise available for permanent rental housing.” The brief defends Santa Monica’s ordinance as an effort to “strike an appropriate balance between encouraging the innovation of the short-term rental market and preserving and increasing access to affordable housing.”
Two other amicus briefs supporting Santa Monica’s position were filed by associations representing the apartment and rental housing industries and UNITE HERE International Union, which represents hotel and retail workers.
Home-Sharing in Santa Monica
After maintaining a multi-decade prohibition against short-term rentals in residential districts, in 2015, the City eased this prohibition by authorizing a form of short-term rentals known as home-sharing, which permits City residents who obtain a City license to host visitors for compensation for a period of less than 31 days, as long as the resident and visitor are both present in the home. Un-hosted short-term rentals of residential housing, known as vacation rentals, remain unlawful in Santa Monica. The City’s home-sharing ordinance struck an important balance by enabling current and prospective residents to supplement income through home-sharing to meet increased rents and housing prices, while ensuring that Santa Monica’s housing units, and particularly affordable units, would not be surreptitiously or openly converted into de facto hotels.
As amended in 2017, the City’s law also imposes modest regulations on businesses, such as Airbnb and HomeAway.com, that engage in booking transactions for short-term rentals of housing units for profit. The City publishes a list of properties that have obtained home-sharing licenses and prohibits businesses from providing and collecting a fee for booking services for unlicensed (and therefore unlawful) short-term rentals.
For more information on the City’s Home-Sharing Ordinance or to apply for a Home-Sharing License, visit www.smgov.net/homeshare.
More Information
City response to petition for rehearing >
Press release on Ninth Circuit ruling >
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Media Contact
Constance Farrell
Communications & Public Information Manager
Constance.Farrell@santamonica.gov