Guest Commentary: What do we lose with Airbnb?

Article 1, Section 1 of the California Constitution recognizes our inalienable rights, including “…acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness and privacy.” I recognize the desire of homeowners to want to profit from renting their homes for the short-term, via vacation rental businesses, such as Airbnb.com, but what are the real impacts of such a policy on those who are the most vulnerable in our society?

I could see where using this business model could be helpful, especially for senior homeowners on fixed incomes who could not otherwise pay their mortgages. However, these businesses dealing in short-term rentals do a grave disservice to the culture of our neighborhoods. Studies have shown that crime is most prevalent in those neighborhoods where tenancy turnover is frequent, and residents are not known to one another. It is in such anonymous places that crime, blight and disregard for others thrive.

Since moving from the East Bay to Petaluma four years ago, to spend more quality time with my parents who live here, I have been a long-term renter, committed to improving the community in which I live. I’ve advocated for and achieved my goal of establishing “no smoking” buffer zones at all our Petaluma Transit Bus Stops. I’m working with Positive Images Petaluma - an advocacy and support group for LGBTQIA youth. I teach music appreciation to seniors at memory care facilities, and lead songs for the Girl Scouts. I don’t happen to believe that money is the most important value a society should revere.

Perhaps you are aware that Petaluma has a vacancy rate for long-term rentals of only 1 percent. I invite you to think deeply about the consequences of homeowners’ being in the business of profiting hand-over-fist, when there is a paucity of safe and affordable housing here for those who cannot afford to buy a home.

Eleven people total this year have been found dead, in or nearby the Petaluma River. Most of these people were each once the beloved child of a mother and a father. Nobody chooses to become destitute and without hope of a better life. I seriously doubt that any of these people had an affordable, safe place to live, prior to their demise. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have found a good-paying job, have good health, a family who cares for them and a safe place to hang their hats each night.

Contrary to the statistics woefully underestimated at the Oct. 14 Petaluma Planning Commission, Airbnb.com currently has an outrageous amount of short-term rental units - over 1,000 - currently listed in Petaluma proper, at the fee of $125 or more per day. This means that 1,000 units of what would otherwise be reasonably priced, market-rate, long-term rental units are off the market, reserved for wealthy, short-term tourists, and a handful of workers, such as traveling nurses.

A cursory look on Craigslist under “apartments for rent,” in Petaluma, for apartments $1,400 or less per month, consistently turns up less than seven listings on any given day. Seven rental units available in that price range, in this city of 58,000 people. And most rental agencies now require applicants to make three times the rent in income to even apply. This policy blatantly discriminates against low-income workers or those living on fixed incomes, like seniors.

What do you value? Contributing to the deep pockets of wealthy CEO billionaires and landlords, or preserving affordable, long-term housing in Petaluma for tenants who are working, decent people who make positive, long-term contributions to our culture here. All human beings need safe and affordable shelter - not just the wealthy ones. I do believe that Pearl S. Buck was right, when she said: “The test of a civilization is in the way that it cares for its helpless members.”

(Susan Kay Gilbert, M.A. Edu., is an advocate for seniors, youth and the disenfranchised, who has lived in Petaluma for four years.)