PORTLAND — It’s all about the numbers when it comes to regulating short-term rentals.

“I think at this point, nine months in, we are close to being honed in” on the extent of short-term rentals, city Director of Permitting & Inspections Michael Russell said Sept. 26 during a meeting of the City Council Housing Committee.

But as a committee public hearing approaches Oct. 11 on potential changes to regulations established last year, being “honed in” still means less than full clarity about how renting rooms or apartments for 30 days or less affects the availability of long-term housing in the city.

In a Sept. 18 memo, Russell said city registration data lists 781 short-term rental units derived from 643 applications from owners. Overall, there are almost 18,000 long-term rentals registered by nearly 4,500 owners.

While short-term rentals could be about 4 percent of the city’s rental market,  Planning Director Jeff Levine said in an Aug. 29 memo that is not a certainty.

“There is no easy way to determine how often those units are actually used as (short-term rentals), as they are required to register if they are used for even a short period of time over the course of a year,” Levine said.

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Financially, the registrations and required fees far outpaced expectations this year. The city had projected $60,000 in revenue from short-term rental fees; more than $124,000 was collected. Of that, $91,000 was used to administer operations and inspections, and $33,000 contributed to the city’s Housing Trust Fund.

Registrations are monitored by Host Compliance, hired by the city to monitor online rental advertisements, which are supposed to include the unit’s city registration number.

To date, Russell said there were 515 notices sent by the city to owners of unregistered units, although he was not certain how many were first notices and how many were notices of violations following a first warning. He estimated 75 percent were first warnings.

Registration fees begin at $100 for owner-occupied single-family homes and tenant-occupied housing units. In multi-unit, owner-occupied, buildings, per-unit fees range from $100 for the first rental to $2,000 per unit for five or more units. Those fees apply to island community rentals and are doubled in multi-unit mainland buildings not occupied by the owner.

As it moves forward, the committee, led by Councilor Jill Duson, will be asked to recommend changes to the fee schedules, removing the distinction between owner-occupied and non-owner occupied buildings.

As of Sept. 18, registrations showed 376 owner-occupied properties with a total of 468 units. The ordinance caps the number of short-term rental units non-owner-occupied mainland buildings at 300, 162 have been registered.

Proposed ordinance changes could affect those totals. Mayor Ethan Strimling and Councilors Kim Cook and Belinda Ray are proposing to count all short-term rental units in a building beyond the one occupied by an owner toward the cap.

Building owners and tenants are now required to sign an affidavit saying they live in the building or unit used for short-term rentals, Cook has proposed more documentation be required when registering, including a state ID and utility bill. If the owner is renewing an application, they could be required to disclose how many nights the units were used as short-term rentals.

David Harry can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 110 or dharry@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHarry8.


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