Huntington Officials Eye Air BnB Regulations Amid Complaints From Residents
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Air BnB and other short-term rental services have come under fire in the suburbs where the revolving door of strangers has towns and villages upset.
As CBS2'S Carolyn Gusoff reported, the Town of Huntington has become the latest to propose rental limits.
College professor Shawn Welnak rents out a bedroom in his quaint Huntington home. It brings in much needed extra income that helps pay off the loans he needed to earn his doctorate.
"It's essential for us to stay here. Between $9,000 and $6,000 a year, supplemented, taxed income, that just makes it possible," he said.
The extra Air BnB income will vanish if the Town of Huntington goes through with a proposal to prohibit short-term rentals under 30 days.
"My fiance and I will have to move," Welnak said, "That makes it able for us to live here."
Councilman Mark Cuthbertson is pushing to rein in rentals amid complaints about traffic and safety.
"Strangers are coming to someone's house on a consistent basis to rent it out, and that's not what is expected in a residential area," he said.
The debate has been simmering across Long Island and the country ever since the sharing economy reached into suburban neighborhoods.
While residents struggling to make ends meet, find the passive income a lifeline -- neighbors complain about a revolving door of so-called fly by night guests and unfamiliar faces.
"Like a bed and breakfast kind of thing. I pay too many taxes in this town to have that going on," one resident said.
Towns and villages have enacted minimum stays to prevent entire houses from being rented out as investments. Air BnB said the majority of Long Island hosts live there and list spare rooms, and that guests spend money at local businesses.
"I think people should definitely have the right to choose if they want to have somebody in their home because it is their home," a resident said.
Welnack insists he is respectful of his neighbors who didn't want to comment.
"I go out of my way to make sure when people stay here they are not even parked on the road," he said.
He'll attend a January 10 hearing to urge a compromise so that new regulations don't hurt more residents than they help.
The councilman said they will consider changing bed and breakfast laws to allow short-term rentals if the host complies with safety and parking regulations.