Like most municipalities1 Atlanta has experienced the proliferation of Short Term Rentals as a result of the growth in commercial platforms that enable hosts to list their properties and facilitate financial transaction between guests and hosts. ATL Neighbors is interested in helping the City of Atlanta identify smart public policies that can balance the interests of Short Term Rental hosts, guests and city residents. Short Term Rentals (STRs) function as unregulated hotels in residential areas. Short Term Rentals have been around long enough for community researchers to identify tangible impacts that STRs have on the communities they operate in.
Short Term Rentals have both positive and negative impacts, but this section focuses on the negative impacts because the negative impacts are the ones that need to be mitigated with good public policy. 2 3
Long term rentals are being converted into short term rentals, which reduces the available homes for city residents and results in increased rents on the long term rentals that remain. 4 5 6 7
“Gentrification is a process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses.”8 Short Term Rentals fuel gentrification by forcing residents out of their current neighborhoods and into new, more affordable ones.
While the notorious Garmon Road party house910 is Atlanta’s best known example of how STRs in residential areas are used to host events, it is far from the only example. It is clear that the City of Atlanta currently lacks the public policy tools to address this type of public nuisance when an unpaid $44,000 water bill is the only tool the city had to shut down the events. This resulted in proposal Z-19-76 which defined “Party House” in the zoning code, but has not yet been implemented.11
The city is so desensitized to shootings at Short Term Rentals that they often are not even covered by the news anymore.12 Despite the city’s desensitization to shootings they remain a major public safety issue for both guests and city residents. Moreover, many of Atlanta’s neighborhoods participate in the neighborhood watch programs offered by the Atlanta Police Department’s Crime Prevention Unit. The transient nature of visitors staying in STRs diminishes the effectiveness of the neighborhood watch by reducing the number of permanent residents available to participate in the program.
Short Term Rentals pose many quality of life issues for nearby residents. In Atlanta, STR houses are being purpose built in the middle of residential neighborhoods with ten or more bedrooms13 and spaces for outdoor entertainment14. These houses are marketed towards and attract renters whose intent is to host large parties that often take place at night. These parties often spill out into the street disrupting the neighborhood. Unlike a traditional hotel, guest behavior is not managed by a front desk, security, or the property owner. For neighbors it can be like having a hotel or night club in a residential area. Currently, absentee owners and managers running these businesses in residential neighborhoods are not being held accountable and neighbors are stuck dealing with noise, illegal parking, gun violence and trash management. Who makes sure the trash cans are taken out and back by 7pm15 if no one is there on trash day? How do you build rapport and mutual understanding with a new neighbor every night?
ATL Neighbors has defined a process to identify smart civic policy that incorporates feedback from as many stakeholders as possible. The process consists of four phases:
ATL Neighbors is currently in Phase 1, which requires reaching out to all of Atlanta’s communities. Community relationships are important to ensure continued engagement with future phases. This phase will also collect public policies and proposals from other municipalities dealing with STRs. Please contact ATL neighbors if you are interested in volunteering your time to help us execute Phase 1. Volunteers with experience in public policy, city planning, law, web development, data science, data visualization, public relations or community outreach are of particular interest.
Click here for additional details on Phase 1.
ATL Neighbors will collect feedback from across the city and public policies from across the world as inputs to the policy development phase. The preference will be to develop clear policies that are easy for all stakeholders to understand and for the City to enforce. If permitting processes are required they should be as streamlined as possible.
Once policy proposals are developed, they will be returned to the community for review and input to ensure the policy proposals are as fair as possible to all stakeholders. Any policy proposals must provide a net benefit to the city as a whole.
Once the policy proposals are finalized, ATL Neighbors will work to educate city residents and city leaders on the impacts and meaning of the policy proposals. In addition to educating the city on the issues, ATL neighbors will advocate for the implementation of the policy proposals it endorses.
Please email ATL neighbors if you need to get in touch. If you would like email updates please join the ATL Neighbors email list.