Steve Pona says he didn’t understand the impact of short-term rentals until one opened right next door.
What he describes as a “hook-up joint” and “party hall” opened next to his home in St. Louis’ Southwest Garden neighborhood and became a magnet for crime.
Then another short-term rental opened nearby. Then another, and another, until, according to Pona’s count, seven were operating within 500 feet of his residence.
“They’re destroying the character of our neighborhood,” Pona says.
So Pona and more residents with similar concerns decided to do something about it. Pona is part of a new citizen-led group called Neighborhoods Are for Neighbors. The group seeks to address challenges created by short-term rentals in St. Louis as they fear a plan now being deliberated by city leaders falls short.
St. Louis is one of only a few municipalities in the area that has no rules on short-term rentals booked through platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO. The Board of Aldermen is considering two bills to change that.
But Pona, along with other members of Neighborhoods Are for Neighbors, view the bills now on the table as inadequate proposals that are near-unenforceable and scant on oversight.
“The bill that’s currently under consideration does limit short-term rentals to some degree, but there’s a lot of loopholes and it’s very difficult to enforce,” says longtime downtown resident Les Sterman.
The citizen group came up with its own ordinance that would impose stricter limits on who can operate short-term rentals and where. Booking platforms would also have to take a more proactive approach to ensuring rentals follow rules; they’d be required to report on registered rentals to the city regularly in addition to providing auditable records upon request.
The city’s proposal would require operators to apply for permits and receive a business license for rentals in which they don’t live. Each operator would be allowed four permits.
Under Neighborhoods Are for Neighbor’s proposal, only city residents could operate short-term rentals within city limits, and they could only operate them in single-family residential areas if they’re renting out of their primary residence. Elsewhere, operators would be allowed two additional units.
The group’s proposal also says that booking platforms would have to be approved by and registered with the city, which would require Airbnb and other platforms to stay in good standing and give the city regular reports.
“Instead of the building division tracking 3,300 individual owners, they only have to work with a relatively small number of significant booking platforms, probably less than 20,” Sterman says.
The number of short-term rentals in St. Louis has increased exponentially in the past few years and even the past few months, according to short-term rental data website AirDNA.
In August, the city housed about 3,000 short-term rentals. This month, AirDNA logged 4,600.
Downtown, Sterman says the growing number of short-term rentals became apparent during the pandemic. Restaurants and bars were closed, so groups started using short-term rentals for parties and other purposes.
“The product of that was big crowds of people late at night, fights, gunfire, more car break-ins, people shooting fireworks out of windows, people shooting guns out of windows,” Sterman says.
Concerns about crime and the lack of availability of affordable housing have bubbled while the city mulls legislation to regulate short-term rentals. Meanwhile, some city residents like Pona feel stuck with rowdy and apathetic neighbors who don’t follow rental platforms’ few rules — rules which few mechanisms exist to enforce.
“They have carte blanche in the city of St. Louis right now,” Pona says. “And they’re taking advantage of it.”
The Transportation and Commerce Committee will discuss the city’s short-term rentals proposal, Board Bills 33 and 34, this morning at 9 a.m. via Zoom.
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