US: Short-term rentals could be phased out entirely in counties across Hawaii if two bills that are currently moving through state legislature are passed.
Both House Bill 1838 and Senate Bill 2919 require final consensus agreements by the end of a committee session on 3 May to go forward to the governor of Hawaii for consideration. County governments may then be granted powers to ban listings on booking platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo, or to determine land uses in their communities.
The proposed measures are seen as a way to address a chronic housing shortage in Hawaii, which has been exacerbated by numerous crises, including last August’s deadly wildfires on the island of Maui and Hawaii’s Big Island which killed more than 100 people, destroyed 4,000 homes and displaced thousands of residents. If the bills are approved, proponents hope that the action will increase long-term housing supply for affected residents.
According to recent estimates as part of an analysis by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, more than 1,000 residents have fled Hawaii since last August’s fires. Significantly, last year’s census represented the first time since records began that more native Hawaiians are now living on the US mainland than in their ancestral homeland.
It was also revealed last month that over 3,000 people are still living out of hotels as a result of their displacement by the wildfires. This is paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s [FEMA] Individuals and Households Programme, which provides financial assistance and direct services to individuals and households impacted by a disaster, who have uninsured or underinsured necessary expenses and serious needs.
Opponents of the bills say that there would be less housing supply to accommodate travelling medical personnel or visiting family, adding that it would also eliminate jobs for property managers, housekeepers and contractors.
David Louie, an attorney for Airbnb, argues furthermore that both bills are unconstitutional and do little to tackle illegal short-term rental activity without proper enforcement.
According to the University of Hawaii’s Economic Research Organisation [UHERO], more than five per cent of the state’s circa 565,000 housing units are listed on booking platforms as short-term / vacation rentals, and 82 per cent of them are listed on Airbnb alone. The statistics also reveal that overseas residents own 52 per cent of those total units, and illegal rentals are not even factored into those numbers.
Last year a federal court judge sided with the Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance when it a used a statute to challenge a Honolulu county ordinance that redefined short-term rentals as constituting a stay of 30-90 days.
