SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb on Monday announced a cash infusion of up to $200 million that will help it roll out Airbnb-branded apartments — buildings designed from the ground-up for home-sharing — in cities across the country.

There’s already one 324-unit building in the works in Kissimmee, Florida, and Airbnb’s developer partner plans to open at least three more by the end of 2018. Silicon Valley residents eventually may see one in their community. While Airbnb has said the project first will target communities in the Southeastern U.S., the Bay Area is “obviously a great potential area,” said Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s global head of policy and public affairs.

“This is going to be part of the future of housing, not only in Florida, but also across the country,” Lehane said Monday during a conference call with reporters

Real estate investor Brookfield Property Partners is contributing up to $200 million to the new apartments — which will be called “Niido Powered by Airbnb” — including $20 million already allotted to the Florida project under construction. That building is slated to open next year.

The apartments will be built by Miami-based developer Newgard Development Group, which will fund construction and retain ownership of the buildings.

Tenants who move into the new apartments will have permission to rent their homes on Airbnb for up to 180 days per year, as long as they give their landlord a portion of the revenue they make. The apartments also will be designed to make life easy both for home-sharing hosts and guests — with features such as keyless entry, shared common spaces and a “master host” at each property who can assist with checking guests in and cleaning. The package comes with a new Airbnb-integrated app that tenants can use to manage their short-term rentals.

The idea is to allow tenants to earn extra cash, helping them afford their rent. Many millennials — the demographic most likely to use Airbnb — struggle to pay rent both in the Bay Area and beyond. Across the U.S., 46 percent of millennials who rent their homes are “rent burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, Lehane said.

Last month Airbnb also launched a program that gives tenants in certain San Francisco apartments the green light to rent their places on the short-term rental website. As part of this new pilot program, tenants in five buildings owned by Veritas Investments will turn over a portion of their Airbnb proceeds to their landlord — the percentage varies depending on the landlord.

“Many millennials struggle to afford the high cost of housing,” Lehane said. “Airbnb is not the solution, but I do think we’re part of a broader solution.”

For now, many renters who choose to use Airbnb to help make ends meet do so behind their landlords’ backs.

“99.99% of leases do not allow for subletting right now,” said Sean Conway, CEO of San Francisco-based property management startup Pillow, which is managing the Veritas Airbnb rentals. “These are leases that were put in place decades ago, before Airbnb was around.”

That’s created a “wild west” culture where liability and security issues are rampant, Conway said. To combat those problems, Conway hopes landlords soon will grant permission for short-term rentals, and craft accompanying rules, as standard in their leases.

San Francisco tries to prevent tenants from listing their homes on Airbnb without their landlord’s approval. Airbnb hosts must register with the city, and when they do, Airbnb sends their landlord a courtesy note advising them that their tenant has applied for a short-term rental permit. San Jose has no such registry, but Airbnb’s website warns San Jose hosts to read their lease and check with their landlord before listing their home. Oakland has yet to legalize Airbnb and other short-term rentals at all — the city started the process in January with a public workshop on the issue, but the effort has stalled.

Airbnb has caused plenty of problems between landlords and tenants in the past. Massive apartment landlord Apartment Investment & Management Co. (AIMCO) sued Airbnb earlier this year, complaining its tenants violated their leases by renting out their apartments on the site. And some landlords have responded to unauthorized home-sharing by terminating the offending tenant’s lease.

But Airbnb and landlords are starting to make nice, as projects such as Veritas and Niido show. Airbnb now has 13,000 units eligible for short-term rentals as part of its “Airbnb Friendly Buildings” initiative — a program through which tenants and landlords share the proceeds from Airbnb rentals.

“We’re…seeing growing support from the housing industry,” Lehane said, “who see home-sharing as a powerful way to attract new tenants.”