St. Louis voters have decided to authorize a new fee on short-term rentals in the city in an attempt to raise more money for affordable housing.
Proposition S got 68% on Tuesday, well above the simple majority needed.
It charges an additional 3% on the cost of rentals such as Airbnb or VRBO. At least half of the revenue raised will go toward the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which helps cover the cost of building and maintaining affordable housing in St. Louis. The remaining money would go toward other housing initiatives like eviction prevention.
“As we've seen a proliferation of short-term rentals, we've also seen rents and mortgage rates also climb as a result of that,” 4th Ward Alderman Bret Narayan, the measure’s sponsor, said in an interview in September. “This is kind of a drop in the bucket to try and offset some of that.”
The city currently lacks an accurate count of how many short-term rentals are operating in the city, but new regulations that take effect on Thursday will make the potential revenue clearer.
Loading...
