Venice Residents Irate That Apartments Are Being Rented To Tourists, Not Tenants
VENICE (CBSLA.com) — Dozens of Venice residents are irate because, they say, a rental company is putting tourists in apartments meant for tenants.
KCAL9's Rachel Kim spoke to residents unhappy with Globe Homes & Condos. They want the vacation rental-management company to rent to locals not tourists.
"I don't make a lot of money. I'm an artist, so is my wife, and both of us need affordable housing to live here. The less homes that are on the market, the more people like me have to pay," said James Adams, a Venice resident.
Adams believes affordable housing in Venice is hard to find these days because of the growing number of short-term rentals. They say homes are becoming hotels and that Globe is one of many companies pumping money into Airbnb's revenue stream.
Globe's owner Sebastian de Kleer says his company is not part of or affiliated with Airbnb; he just advertises on it. De Kleer believes rents in Venice have gone up because of gentrification and other reasons.
"Big businesses have come in. They have brought in their high-paid staff. In that case, people get pushed out. There's also a lot of outside investors; they buy up the properties," De Kleer said.
But residents believe Globe is part of the problem. They say short-term rentals bring in people who don't care about their community.
"They don't care about picking up the trash; they don't care about playing loud music because they don't live here," says Adams.
"They're out late at night, Uber cars are coming in and out late at night, taxi cabs, luggage dragged on the street, cleaning ladies are brought in," says Jane Taguchi, a Silver Lake resident.
"We do our due diligence. We have age restrictions. We don't want to rent to young people, larger groups we feel would be irresponsible," De Kleer said.
