When you go to Chinatown, you expect to see a New England hub of Asian-American culture. You certainly don’t expect to find a neighborhood overrun by Airbnbs, tourists and gentrification. But housing advocates are worried that a few years down the line, this might be exactly what Chinatown looks like.
An article in The Boston Globe on Thursday reported that Airbnbs are replacing apartments in Boston neighborhoods. Building owners are capitalizing on their properties by switching to more profitable short-term rentals, as opposed to less lucrative long-term housing. Advocacy groups are starting to put pressure on the City to regulate this new industry, worried the issue will only worsen Boston’s housing crisis.
These advocates are right to be worried. As an increasing number of apartments are bought up to be used as Airbnbs, an increasing number of Bostonians are being displaced. With owners operating under the guises of a hip, progressive company like Airbnb, the reality of what is happening is nothing more than gentrification.
A study by Community Labor United found that Airbnb hosts with multiple units make up just 12 percent of all hosts in Boston, but control more than 28 percent of the city’s listings. Some units are even owned by corporate entities that operate over 100 listings. This is where we start to see problems.
Because Airbnb operators are able to charge higher prices for their short term rentals than landlords would be able to charge for long term rentals, they can afford to let these listings go empty the majority of the year. In Boston, 42 percent of Airbnbs were rented for less than 30 days all of last year. This means that residences where families used to live full-time are now largely empty. Meanwhile, these families are struggling to find affordable housing.
Airbnb is not the problem. Airbnb is a company with a lot to offer, both for renters and operators, and people are just taking advantage of that. It’s a great way for people to make a little extra money, and a great way for people to travel in a less expensive, more accessible way. The only problem is that in the founding of Airbnb, a new industry was created, and it’s an industry that’s currently going largely unchecked.
Airbnb’s website includes a message from their CEO, Brian Chesky. He wrote that at the heart of their company’s mission is the idea that “every community is a place you can belong.” This is an admirable sentiment, so long as it doesn’t mean that white tourists are “belonging” in a neighborhood at the expense of the people who have lived there their entire lives.
The thing about gentrification is that it’s not all bad. Gentrification expedites progress and development and growth. But we can’t forget that in the midst of all this forward progress, some communities are being left behind. If Airbnb’s expansion into Boston comes at the expense of people’s homes and lives and neighborhoods, then it is not worth it.
In cities like New York and Seattle, a “one host, one home” policy has been instituted for Airbnbs. This ensures that a few rich operators can’t buy up half the city and treat their rentals like a chain of hotels. That isn’t what Airbnb is about. With these policies, cities are able to reap the rewards of Airbnbs without feeling all the consequences. This is what Boston needs to do.
Addressing these problems in Boston wouldn’t be about restricting Airbnb. It would be about prioritizing our own people, the people who live and work and raise families in our neighborhoods, over a business full of rentals that sit empty.
