Short-term rentals: Neighborhood wreckers or a good deal for tourists and homeowners?

And a neighborhood is a place for long-term residents, not a commodity for outsiders to exploit, he adds.

That’s why the retired college professor and his neighbors on Manchester Street opposed a proposal by separate owners who don’t live there to turn the lower units of their doubles into short-term rentals.

“We didn’t want our block to be taken over by Airbnbs,” said Airhart, a former history professor and dean of Houghton College’s Buffalo program. “We’re worried about outside investors, about people interfering with Buffalo.”

In both cases, those owners of 40 and 61 Manchester – one of whom lives in southern California – sought permits to turn the lower units of their doubles into short-term rentals.

Such short-term rental owners see it as a business opportunity to supplement their income and pay for their houses, without worrying about the risk of getting stuck with bad long-term tenants. They say they should be entitled to use their properties as they see fit. And they say they are helping to support tourism in Buffalo, by giving visitors a homey place to stay and bringing them to parts of the city they might not otherwise visit.

“You’re getting a diverse crowd of people coming in,” said Trevor Brinkworth of Buffalo, who co-owns a short-term rental house on Days Park. “We’re getting people from all over the world. They’re spending money.”

But that’s not the way Airhart and others saw it.

“For someone from outside, we could look like an attractive investment possibility,” he said indignantly. “But we live here. I rather resent that we owners on the street who take pride in our street and have invested are now being used by people to sell their Airbnbs.”

In the end, the Common Council denied both permits. One house has now been sold to a new owner, while the other now has a long-term tenant in the apartment.

“We were pleased with the results,” Airhart said. “This was never about people or personalities. I’m sure the people who bought these properties are fine people. It’s about policies.”

Neighborhood for hotels

The proliferation of short-term rentals throughout the city is causing tensions and controversy in many neighborhoods, particularly Allentown, Elmwood Village, the Delaware District and Days Park.

“Why suddenly do we have to turn our neighborhood into a neighborhood for hotels, for people to make their mortgage?” Mary Simpson, a Days Park resident, asked as the Buffalo Planning Board considered a permit in September for California-based owners that would have led to the third short-term rental on the street. It was ultimately denied by the Council.

Longtime city residents question how many short-term rentals are too many, criticizing the city for not having a clear policy or control. According to city records, there may be as many as 800 short-term rentals in Buffalo, but only about 1 in 3 is licensed by the city as required by law. Those that aren’t licensed are now being told by the city to “cease all operations” immediately.

The discontent increased pressure on the city and the Council, which is considering a six-month moratorium on new short-term rental permits to give lawmakers time to consider whether additional regulations are needed. The proposed moratorium is supported by Council Members Mitch Nowakowski, David Rivera, Leah Halton-Pope and Brian Bollman, and is under review in committee.

Councilmembers have also rejected some applications for permits, based on significant neighborhood opposition and other factors.

“The use of a nonowner-occupied unit for these purposes of short-term rentals are creating disharmony, disruption and a lack of serious cohesion in neighborhoods,” Nowakowski said. “This is why we have zoning laws, to make sure that uses operate in harmony.”

The local conflict is also part of a broader battle playing out in many cities nationally, and even internationally, as places like New York City and San Francisco have responded with restrictions or even outright bans in certain areas that have, in turn, led to lawsuits.

Niagara Falls imposed a ban on short-term rentals in most neighborhoods except for a designated zone. Ellicottville also banned short-term rentals. And short-term rental owners in Lewiston sued the town in May, citing constitutional rights violations, after the Town Board instituted new requirements for homeowners to obtain special-use permits for short-term rentals or face hefty and increasing fines.

“They serve a purpose, but there are unintended consequences,” said Rivera, who approved all the permit requests in his Niagara District until recently. “They displace long-term renters who live in a neighborhood, want to stay in a neighborhood, and they can’t because someone is buying up the properties and doing Airbnbs.”

Airbnb is already lobbying the city, warning owners in one email that the Council is “discussing prohibiting all nonowner-occupied STRs in the city,” and urging the owners to “make your voice heard” to protect “your ability to continue hosting in Buffalo.”

Party houses and other problems

The problem is primarily focused on nonowner-occupied short-term rentals. That’s because, critics say, the owners view the rentals as a business, without regard for the neighborhood and people who live there. There’s less objection when a homeowner rents out a bedroom or an extra unit in their own house, because they still live there.

“The person residing at the property has rights to use it. If you’re not owner-occupied, that’s where I get hung up on,” Nowakowski said. “I’m just worried about the non-owner-occupied coming in and using these as basically unregistered hotels.”

Neighbors complain that the short-term rentals often become party houses. Airbnb said last month it had rejected 100 rental attempts that it flagged as potentially being for Halloween parties.

They also cite worries about encouraging or allowing crime and vandalism. Parking becomes a problem as well. And they say such transient occupants don’t care about disrupting the neighborhood or property.

Most of all, neighbors say those units – because they are not rented for the long-term – detract from the sense of community and commitment that they want to maintain or achieve, and instead lead to the “hotel-ization” of residential neighborhoods. And they complain of increased burdens on community services, without the owners paying business taxes.

“A short-term rental is really a commercial enterprise. If you take a house and turn it into a hotel, it’s a commercial enterprise,” Simpson said. “They are not entitled to turn it into a hotel. It’s a residential house. Non-owner-occupied AirBnBs do not belong in residential neighborhoods.”

Critics also argue that short-term rentals take away more potential long-term units that could be used to help solve the city’s housing shortage, and drive up the cost of housing and long-term rentals, even while state, county and city governments invest millions of dollars to incentivize and subsidize construction of new housing.

Feeling misunderstood

Owners of short-term rentals say they’re being wrongly demonized. They say they’ve invested in upgrading the units to make them appealing for guests, which benefits the neighborhood.

“We’re an ambassador to people from other cities,” said Tim Wagner, who owns a short-term rental at the corner of Fox Street and Sycamore Avenue on the East Side. “People have come from all over the country, and they all have the same wonderful experience.”

Owners and Airbnb also claim that their renters spend their money locally, benefiting the economy.

In some cases, out-of-town owners chose to do short term because they want access to the home when they are in town.

“This business has been a steady income that’s allowed me to provide jobs, to usually three women, part time, over the last five years. So I think, in many ways, it’s an asset to our community,” said Eliza Schneider, who owns a three-bedroom main house and a small carriage house at 372 Prospect St.

She bought the home in 2012 and lived there until 2019, when she got married and moved to Syracuse. Since then, she’s been renting it through Airbnb.

“A lot of people might just have the wrong impression,” she said of her business. “It’s people traveling with a family. They’re coming because they want a taste of the local culture, versus staying in a hotel.”

Owners also say they’re at less risk – and so is the community – from short-term renters that don’t work out than if there’s a bad long-term renter. “If we were renting the apartment out to a long-term tenant and they were bad tenants, what’s the process for getting them out?” Brinkworth said. “You can have bad renters short term or long term. The short term leave the next day.”

Breaking the law

Buffalo passed a law in October 2019 requiring that nonowner-occupied short-term rentals must register with the city and apply for a special-use permit from the Council. No more than two units in a building can be used. In two single-family neighborhood zones, short-term rentals are not permitted without a zoning use variance.

Even so, there are currently only 276 short-term rentals that are registered with the city, but as many as 808 that were operating as of Tuesday, according to the city’s Department of Permits & Inspections, which uses a specialized computer program that scans 70 online reservation services.

Of those, about 588 were confirmed rentals, of which 312 were not complying with the new city law. And 184 of those illegal units had been rented within the last 60 days.

“These are people that are deliberately breaking the law,” Airhart said. “They’re renting things out knowing full well that what they’re doing is not lawful.”

Licensed short-term rental owners say they want to see a crackdown as well. They’ve spent time and money to comply with city law, and they say others should be required to do the same.

“People see an opportunity to make money, and unfortunately, not all of them go about it the right way,” Brinkworth said. “There’s probably a reason why they didn’t go through the proper channels to begin with. There’s probably some that don’t deserve to be operating and should be shut down.”

The city sent out two notices this year to all of the unregistered short-term rental owners, warning them to comply with the rules or pay a $500 fine.

The city also recently updated the regulation to impose other health and safety requirements on owners, such as requiring inspections, carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, working fire extinguishers and shovels, banning the use of basements, attics or garages, and explicitly prohibiting “party houses.”

“It’s going well,” said Permits & Inspections Commissioner Catherine Amdur. “We’re having a lot of property owners call and come into the office to initiate or continue the licensing process.”

But it’s still a far cry from the total, so fines are now being posted. And the city has posted official shutdown notices on all 184 unlicensed rental units that have been used in the last 60 days.

“I’d like to see them close down the illegal ones,” Wagner agreed. “It cost me over $1,000 to get this license, and I think that’s what people should do. If they’re not licensed, then shut them down.”