ST. LOUIS 鈥 Aldermen are considering charging a new fee on short-term rentals to help pay for affordable housing in the city.
The proposal, which would need voter approval, would require operators of Airbnbs, VRBOs, and similar rentals to pay $1.50 per rented room per night. Alderman Bret Narayan, the bill sponsor, couldn鈥檛 say how much money the plan would raise because officials are still gathering data on all the rentals in the city.
But Narayan said his bill calls for at least half of the proceeds to go to the city鈥檚 Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which awards grants to firms to build and repair homes for low and middle-income residents.
The rest of the money could be spent on other programs with similar aims. Aldermanic President Megan Green told the Post-Dispatch recently that some of the money could help a cash-strapped program she championed that is supposed to pay private lawyers to represent people facing eviction. Current funding for the program is expected to pay for full representation for 135 people over the next two years 鈥 well short of the thousands Green wanted to help.
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The legislation marks the board鈥檚 latest venture into the short-term rental industry. For years, the businesses operated largely without regulation, despite concerns about rentals hosting raucous and sometimes violent parties, and taking affordable homes off the market for residents who want to live in them full-time.
That started to change last year, when aldermen voted to limit the number of units an operator can own, make it easier to shut a unit down when there鈥檚 trouble, and require operators to get city permits.
On Tuesday, aldermen on the board鈥檚 housing committee heard the new proposal. They generally liked the concept.
But aldermen Anne Schweitzer, of Boulevard Heights, and Rasheen Aldridge, of downtown, raised questions about how it would be enforced, and if it was fair to charge a fee on short-term rentals that isn鈥檛 鈥斅and per state law, cannot be聽鈥 charged to city hotels. Rentals listed on Airbnb are already subject to the same lodging taxes as hotels, and other rentals are expected to follow as the regulations passed last year are put into place.
Schweitzer said she wanted to get more public input on the idea before the committee voted.
Charlie Hinderliter, a representative of the 狐狸视频 Realtors association, said his organization would prefer a simpler fee structure rather than the current proposal鈥檚 charge.
Another hearing on the bill is expected next week.