ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Some neighbors in Monroe County are urging the county legislature to vote against opting out of a state-backed short-term rental registry. The registry would impact platforms like Airbnb and VRBO.
News10NBC reports that Monroe County currently has approximately 630 short-term rentals that would need to be registered. This includes about 500 Airbnb listings and 130 VRBO listings.
“Earlier this year, New York State finalized a law. That law requires every county to create a registry of short-term rentals,” said County Legislator Rachel Barnhart.
Barnhart said Monroe County is the largest upstate county that has not opted into the state’s short-term rental registry.
“That registry would require short-term rental operators to register every couple of years,” Barnhart said. “Counties could charge a fee to maintain it and provide a lot of detail about their bookings.”
The registry aims to standardize tax collection and provide data to improve housing availability in Monroe County.
“We are in the middle of a housing crisis,” said housing advocate Kelly Cheatle. “Today when I learned that there is an apartment building with eight units that is being converted over to an Airbnb, that’s eight houses that cannot be occupied by our families.”
Short-term rental owner Anita Twitchell expressed support for the registry.
“And we’re not saying ban them,” Barnhart said. “What we’re saying is track them so that we can make informed policy decisions down the road.”
Housing advocate Debbi Keller emphasized the importance of safety standards for short-term rentals, saying “we need to know how many we actually have in this city and what the safety precautions are. Do they have smoke detectors? Do they have fire extinguishers? Is the bedding up to standard? You know, we have to treat them like a hotel.”
Advocates say that short-term rental owners would have to pay a small fee, but did not specify how much.
The Monroe County Legislature is expected to discuss the matter further in Tuesday’s meeting.
The post Housing advocates push for Monroe County to opt into state’s short-term rental registry appeared first on WHEC.com.
