Re “San Diego’s short-term rental rules a year later” (July 21): The blessing City Council gave via its 2021 Short-Term Rental Ordinance to full-time, whole home, unhosted STRs — which were previously illegal, even if the rule wasn’t strictly enforced — unleashed a wave of speculative demand from investors that supercharged San Diego housing prices. Simultaneous with this increased investor demand, every unit converted into an STR effectively demolishes a home from San Diego’s already-precious supply of housing stock. This double-edged sword is devastating to the city’s housing and rental markets.
For a city with a constrained supply of housing, allowing several thousand homes to be converted into what amount to massively oversized hotel rooms with yards — for the financial benefit of mega-corporations like AirBNB/VRBO and private real estate investors, and at the expense of the rest of us — is absurd.
For the sake of San Diego’s citizens struggling to afford housing, our elected officials must find the courage to meaningfully act.
— Doug Brown, Clairemont
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