By Steven Fulop, James Solomon, and Mira Prinz-Arey

There has been a lot of chatter about Jersey City’s proposed short-term rentals ordinance, and with it a lot of misinformation. That is why it is important to get the facts out.

To start, our ordinance does not eliminate the ability to have short-term rentals in Jersey City. The objective is to preserve the original intent of Airbnb which is to allow homeowners to pay their mortgages and bills by renting a room or apartment in their home. Airbnb was never designed to be the facilitator for full-time, for-profit illegal hotels, rooming houses, or hostels in a community. Unfortunately, as we have heard from many of our residents, that is what it has become. Unaccountable landlords are creating party hotels in apartment buildings and residential neighborhoods where families live and work every day. The result: increased rent costs, decreased available affordable housing for residents, and quality of life issues in our neighborhoods citywide.

To be clear, we are not looking to stop people from renting units. Period. The goal is to balance short- and long-term rentals, ensuring apartments remain available to long-term tenants, which is important to the overall health of the rental units in the City.

In fact, after receiving numerous complaints, we drafted the ordinance by working with a committee of Jersey City residents that included housing activists, renters, and Airbnb hosts from every corner of the City.

Over 70% of all short-term rentals in Jersey City are “multiple listings,” often owned by out-of-town investors who outbid long-term residents for properties only to drive up the price of the rental market. While this is an issue across the nation, we are taking a stand in our city for our residents by making it clear that this is unacceptable here, and we expect to lead by example for other towns and cities to follow in solving the unforeseen fallout of these short-term rentals.

What we are proposing is to uphold what Jersey City originally agreed to in 2015 when it embraced the idea of home sharing. We’ve purposefully worked together with individuals across the community to ensure that the public has a chance to weigh in directly. It is our hope that we can continue to come together to create and save affordable housing in Jersey City, ensure quality of life for all residents, and set the standard for other cities suffering from similar problems.

If this issue is brought to the voters in November, we are confident residents will agree with us to ensure that quality of life be put above all else – especially out of town investors with no stake in the game. This is our City, and we aim to protect it.

Steven Fulop is Mayor of Jersey City. James Solomon is Ward E Councilman. Mira Prinz-Arey is Ward B councilwoman

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