Eighteen years ago, Rafi and Noa Spivak left Israel and moved to Vancouver, a place of “normality, safety and peace.”
They were able to scrape enough money together to buy a house off Commercial Drive. As the costs of living in Vancouver rise, however, it’s been harder and harder to get by, especially since both are self-employed.
“For the last year, we’ve been offered a lifeline,” Rafi Spivak told Vancouver city councillors at Tuesday night’s public hearing about proposed rules for short-term rentals on home-sharing sites such as Airbnb.
The Spivaks have a 200 sq.ft. basement suite, which they set up to accommodate visiting family and friends, who otherwise couldn’t afford to visit them. Over the past year, it’s also been a temporary home-away-from-home to 80 Airbnb guests.
“Our livelihood depends on it,” he said.
Their guests rely on it, as well. During the summer, Spivak said it’s virtually impossible to find a hotel in Vancouver. (The head of Tourism Vancouver told council that Vancouver’s hotels have a 92 per cent occupancy rate in peak months and the average hotel room is $260 a night.)
“For them, places like ours are their only option,” Spivak said.
The city’s proposed short-term rental policy would not allow the Spivaks to offer their basement suite on Airbnb. (Technically, all Airbnb listings are currently illegal. City bylaws say the shortest rental period is 30 days.)
Only primary residences would conform to the proposed new rules, which also impose a licensing and enforcement structure. The hope is that by taking basement and secondary suites out of the home-sharing market, these short-term rental units will be put into the long-term rental market. City staff estimates the number of new rental units in private homes could increase by 400 to 1,600, helping to solve a housing crisis in a city where there’s a 0.8 per cent rental vacancy rate.
The staff report infers a correlation between the growing popularity of platforms such as Airbnb and the low vacancy rates.
But Airbnb hosts such as the Spivaks say that if the new rules are imposed, they would not be offering their basement suite as a long-term rental instead.
“We need it for family and it’s not suitable for long-term rental,” Spivak told council. “Are we opportunists trying to make a quick buck or people desperately using everything we have to get by?”
There were 98 presentations registered for Tuesday night’s public hearing. Several withdrew before the meeting started, but as the evening wore on, the gaps between available speakers on the list grew longer. The hearing was stopped at 10:15 p.m., approximately halfway through the list, and will resume Thursday night at 6 p.m..
The majority of the speakers on Tuesday night were Airbnb hosts who spoke against the ban on secondary and basement suites. Each story was different but they all shared common themes.
1. “We’re trying to make ends meet.”
The majority of homeowners who spoke said they were turning to Airbnb as a necessary way to supplement their income in a very expensive city.
Many have secondary or basement suites that are left available for friends and family, such as children who have grown and moved out of the house but need a place to stay when they come home for a visit. One man and his wife just had a baby and his in-laws have arrived to help out for the first few months. They need to keep their basement suite available for other such visits.
If taken out of the short-term rental market, the owners would struggle financially.
“It makes [living in Vancouver] more precarious,” Kevin MacDonald said of what would happen if his family can’t get the extra income from a basement suite, which, when not being used by family and friends, is rented out for various lengths of stay.
“All it does is cause financial harm,” said Allan Oas, a retiree who rents out a two-bedroom basement suite when his adult sons aren’t home. “I don’t even know if it’s a secondary suite. It’s two rooms and a bathroom and a kitchenette. Is a toaster oven and microwave a kitchen?”
2. “I would not be putting it back into the long-term rental pool.”
Some people said they had tried unsuccessfully to rent their spaces to long-term tenants. People described old houses with basement tenants complaining about creaking floors and noisy pipes.
One basement suite’s ceiling clearance is only 6’8” and doors aren’t wide enough on moving day, which have proved to be deterrents. There have been two-month stretches between long-term rentals. When Vision Vancouver Coun. Tim Stevenson asked why Airbnb guests were not bothered by the low ceiling, the owner said, “When people are staying for the short term, they don’t care about a lot of the same things… If I’m living in a place for a year and kids are running above me, I wouldn’t want to live there. But if I’m visiting family for two weeks and I’m out for most of the day, I don’t mind.”
3. “This represents more of a ban than a balance.”
“I believe in owners having the right to have a say in what they do with their property,” said Rachelle Delany. “I put up with construction, and noise, and co-op housing being ripped down for extremely expensive condos, and I find [the proposed regulations] hypocritical. It bothers me my neighbourhood is being changed. I want a community that works for people without breaking any rules and being a good citizen.”
Allan Oas said, “Council is doing many things to solve a real problem but you’re trying so many things… if you succeed you won’t know why. You won’t know what’s caused by various things because you have no metrics…
“I don’t think that short-term rentals should be a scapegoat for a series of problems, some of which, if council had anticipated, they would have been able to affect. There has to be more thoughtful use of your time.”
4. “It’s the affordability, the flexibility and being good ambassadors for neighbourhood businesses.”
Some of the speakers said that by opening up their homes to Airbnb, they were providing invaluable support to local businesses such as cafes and restaurants. There are no hotels in their neighbourhood and, besides, the mom-and-pop businesses they recommend aren’t on hotels’ guest-suggestion radar.
Airbnb allows families to stay and cook together, something that’s very important in some cultures. Families with children appreciate having access to yards and neighbourhood facilities.
“It is a wonderful experience for us,” said host Bernadette D’Silva. She said most of her guests are visiting children at UBC or aging parents.
“Imagine making a connection with a complete stranger,” Leigh Striegler said of why she enjoyed opening up her bungalow to Airbnb guests. “I’ve never had a bad experience. The connection I share with them is about belonging. I’m an insider’s guide to Vancouver but it’s beyond that.”
5. “I would be happy to have a three per cent tax.”
None of the presenters argued against the $49 annual licensing fee or being taxed on their home-sharing income. Many said they are already declaring the revenue on their income taxes.
