Could a new law force Airbnb hosts to become hosts?

Local Law 18, which has come under enormous pressure from hotel owners and their affiliated unions who view home-sharing platforms as serial killers out to grab one Hilton at a time, is tricky because it does not result in an outright ban. A person can become a host by registering with the city's Bureau of Special Enforcement, but the process is long and tedious and the bureau reserves the right to deny your petition. Of the 5,661 applications received in early February, 1,387 were granted and 955 were rejected.

How effective the new regulations have been in promoting affordable housing, part of the goal, is not entirely clear, but the implications for many homeowners who have been dependent on income from short-term rentals – and not a Wolf induction stove or an A trip to Morocco, but merely to make ends meet, seems fairly straightforward.

In November, RHOAR (short for Restore Homeowner Autonomy & Rights), a grassroots group of hundreds of property owners who have struggled in the wake of Local Law 18, has released a report examining some of its effects. More than 90 percent of respondents said they are now having trouble meeting monthly housing costs, such as mortgages and utilities. Nearly a third postponed critical repairs to roofs, plumbing and windows.

While the homeownership rate in New York City hovers at about one-third, that figure varies by municipality and race, with rates for white and Asian families being significantly higher than for black and Hispanic families. Contractor and filmmaker Tony Lindsay began listing his East New York, Brooklyn home on Airbnb in 2018, first for extra cash and then as a lifeline when work slowed and a second rental property, a two-family home owned by his father and not from his father. far away in Bushwick, became a liability.

The problem, Mr. Lindsay said, is the inequality built into the new law, which “reflects a preoccupation with conversations framed and led by the privileged.” A certain class of buildings, some of which contain apartments, where units can command a very high price per night, remain exempt.