Calling on Short-Term Rentals to Play by the Rules - by Councillor Joe Cressy, seconded by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam

These regulations struck an appropriate balance, permitting home-sharing in a principal residence, and simultaneously creating a legal framework to allow the service and protecting our City's fragile rental housing stock. Unfortunately, almost immediately after this critical step forward, the new regulations were appealed to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal. A new report released earlier this month details almost 6,500 entire homes in Toronto, a number that has nearly doubled in the past two years, being used as ghost hotels. These homes and units, often purchased in bulk by corporations and taken permanently off the rental market and used as permanent short-term rentals, would not be permitted under the rules passed by the City in 2017. In a City facing a housing crisis, more than 6,500 homes and units approved and built to be used as housing have been converted into ghost hotels. The crisis is complex, as are the solutions - we need new affordable housing, deeper affordability and much more. We also need AirBnB to become part of the housing affordability solution.