Mayor, Farrell offer new restrictions on Airbnb rentals

Mark Farrell, County Supervisor, announces the perimeters for a taxpayer-funded loan assistance program aimed at keeping first responders in San Francisco at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on July 30, 2013. Mark Farrell, County Supervisor, announces the perimeters for a taxpayer-funded loan assistance program aimed at keeping first responders in San Francisco at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on July 30, 2013. Photo: Katie Meek, The Chronicle Photo: Katie Meek, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Mayor, Farrell offer new restrictions on Airbnb rentals 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Mark Farrell are stepping into one of the city’s most contentious issues, suggesting ways to toughen and streamline regulations of short-term rentals in private homes.

At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, the two introduced amendments to the city’s recently enacted “Airbnb law” that they said would beef up enforcement and better protect rental housing.

“Our current home-sharing laws must be clearer and easier to enforce,” Lee said in a statement.

The suggested amendments would cap all short-term rentals at 120 days a year, and would create and fund a new city office to register, investigate and enforce short-term rental laws.

“We are trying to strike a balance between people who do occasional home-sharing to get by, while still preserving neighborhood character and our stock of affordable housing,” said Tony Winnicker, a senior adviser to the mayor.

The current law, which took effect Feb. 1 after more than two years of debate, caps temporary rentals of entire homes at 90 days a year, but allows residents who are present in their home to rent out a room to travelers 365 days a year. Critics said that created a loophole making the law unenforceable, as the city could not determine if owners were present when travelers were there.

The new law treats “hosted” and “unhosted” rentals the same, limiting all rentals of less than 30 days to a maximum of 120 days a year.

Create a new office

The amendment would create a new Office of Short-Term Rental Administration and Enforcement, drawing staff from the city’s Planning Department, Department of Building Inspection and the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector.

Currently, the Planning Department is supposed to enforce the law, but has said that it needs more resources to do so. The new office would provide one-stop service for San Franciscans to comply with the existing law’s requirement that rental hosts register with the city. Airbnb and many hosts have complained that the current process is cumbersome.

The existing law allows some affected parties, such as building residents and homeowners associations the right to sue violators if the city doesn’t step in. The amendments also give housing nonprofits and neighbors within 100 feet the right to sue if the city doesn’t rein in violations within 105 days of a complaint. People who sue could get their attorney’s fees plus injunctive relief — meaning having the violations cease.

Simplify enforcement

Farrell said the amendments would strengthen and streamline the ordinance by making registration easier, simplifying the rules for enforcement and allowing neighbors to use the one-stop shop as a place to make any complaints.

“I look forward to the discussion, which I know will come, and believe that as a city we will get this law right,” he said.

Airbnb, which started in 2008 when the founders offered crash space on blow-up mattresses in their SoMa bachelors’ pad, has become one of the world’s most valuable startups, worth an estimated $20 billion. But it’s stirred tremendous controversy in its hometown and elsewhere, as critics worry that it siphons permanent housing into more lucrative short-term rentals.

A Chronicle investigation last year showed that Airbnb had about 5,000 rentals in the city, with two-thirds of them being entire homes. Competing site VRBO/HomeAway has about 1,200 San Francisco rentals.

Supervisor David Campos has competing legislation, which comes down far harder on Airbnb, capping all rentals at 90 days a year, and imposing $1,000-a-day fines on companies that showcase renters who haven’t registered with the city.

Airbnb said it prefers the suggested amendments to the more draconian legislation from Campos, which it called “a Trojan Horse proposal that effectively bans home sharing.” But the company took issue with the 120-day cap, which it called arbitrary.

Campos argued that the proposed changes still don’t address the problems with enforcing the current ordinance.

'Impossible to enforce’

The amendments “don’t require Airbnb to provide addresses or to say how many days it’s rented out,” Campos said. “The Planning Department said without that information, the ordinance is impossible to enforce.”

A group of landlords, housing activists and others called ShareBetter San Francisco still plans a November ballot initiative asking voters to clamp down on vacation rentals even more. Dale Carlson, a public relations professional who heads that effort, was critical of the Lee and Farrell amendments.

“It completely indemnifies Airbnb and other hosting platforms that are aiding and abetting illegal activity,” he said in a statement. “And it denies regular people the opportunity to effectively defend their own homes and neighborhoods.”

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth