Anyone renting a spare bedroom for less than 30 days in Richmond will have to get a license from the city and prove they live in the home.
But boarding and lodging businesses can be rentals and they can be owned by corporations — points that irked some councillors who tried to amend a bylaw before council on Monday night dealing with these short-term accommodations.
Richmond resident Kerry Starchuk asked council to implement a buffer zone between boarding and lodging establishments, and spoke about the hollowing out of neighbourhoods that have a lot of short-term rentals in them. She said she has both short-term rentals and birth tourism homes in her neighbourhood.
“What we must concentrate on is respect, bringing back a sense of community, social cohesion and enforce the rules we already have,” she told council.
Vancouver housing advocate Rohana Rezal, who has created software to monitor short-term rentals, searched the rentals in Richmond this week and found several operators with more than one listing – one had 17, another had 16.
Fifteen people listed two units on Airbnb, nine people listed three units, six people listed four units. He said there are regularly about a thousand short-term rentals available in Richmond.
At Monday’s meeting, council also approved more bylaw officers to monitor short-term rentals.
