A local nonprofit conducting housing research in New Orleans has found that out of town companies are buying up dozens of units in the city and converting those to short term rentals.
Meg Lousteau moved into Treme 15 years ago. Recently, she's started to feel like she’s one of the only full-time residents left.
"I have seen neighbor after neighbor move out either because they're forced out or their landlord sells the building and in so many cases those houses have become short term rentals. They're basically hotels,” Lousteau said.
On one block of Ursuline, 12 of the 17 units are short term rentals and the steady stream of tourists is constant.
"Sometimes they are innocuous, sometimes they are really obnoxious but the point is none of them are my neighbors,” Lousteau said.
Breonne DeDecker has been tracking New Orleans housing for years through the organization Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative. Recently she collected data on several out of state companies that own more than a hundred Airbnb units in New Orleans.
"Stay Alfred has 172 listings in the city,” DeDecker said. “There's a cooperation called Sonder that's based out of San Francisco, they have 152 permits in the city."
An Airbnb spokesperson said in a statement "The vast majority of New Orleans Airbnb hosts are sharing the homes in which they live, and many do so, in large part, to afford to stay in their homes."
Lousteau says she hasn't seen that in her neighborhood.
"The picture they try to paint to the public is that it's people who are trying to make ends meet but in reality, the money and the bulk of the hosts in New Orleans don't live in these properties. They live in other parts of town or other parts of the country or they're cooperations," Lousteau said.
She says if this trend continues, locals will no longer be able to live in their city.
AirBnb sent Eyewitness News information on this topic:
We are committed to working with the City of New Orleans to protect long-term housing stock, which is why worked closely with the city to develop a streamlined registration system that gives the city the information they need to enforce regulations. As part of our commitment to being good partners with New Orleans, we removed thousands of hosts who did not apply for their license through our platform this spring and continue working with the city to support their enforcement of the new law.
Additional background information:
- We were the only platform to work closely with the City of New Orleans to develop the new pass through registration system. Here’s how it works:
- When hosts create a listing, they are presented with a city registration screen that guides them through inputting required basic information including name, number of rooms in the listing, the listing address and the type of permit requested.
- Airbnb then passes this information to the city.
- The city follows up directly with the host within two weeks, with additional questions and instructions on how to pay for their specific license/permit type.
- We have removed thousands of listings for which hosts did not apply for their license from our platform, or obtain a license directly from the city.
- A short-term rental is not the equivalent of a unit of long-term housing stock. Many short-term rentals listings include guest rooms or homes that are shared only occasionally and would not be available for a long-term tenant.
- Two Loyola University professors analyzed Airbnb booking data and determined Airbnb had 'no discernible impact' on rental prices in New Orleans. There are many factors that can impact housing in a neighborhood. No study has proven there is any one cause for certain impacts.
- In this opinion survey, 95% of economists and housing experts said they don't believe home sharing has a significant impact on rent.