Are Your Neighbors Renting Their Home On Airbnb?

Visit Airbnb.com, search for “Evanston, IL,” and you just might discover that your neighbors are renting out their house for overnight guests. 

The national website allows homeowners to advertise a room or a full home for short-term rentals, almost like a bed and breakfast—but without the formal permitting process required for a bed and breakfast in Evanston and many other communities.

Discussion of how—and whether—to regulate short-term rentals has bubbled up in cities around the country, as Airbnb grows more popular and more people begin posting their homes online. In Evanston, the city’s legal department is currently working on two different ordinances for Evanston aldermen to consider, which could be ready for discussion by the planning and development committee as soon as April 1.

Want more local news in Evanston? Sign up for our free newsletter.

One ordinance would ban short-term rentals altogether, while the other would create legislation to regulate the practice, according to assistant city attorney Ken Cox. Now, it's just up to city council members to decide whether they want to listen to those residents who believe short-term rentals decrease property values, or those residents who believe they're actually a boon to the local economy.

Concerns Include Property Values, Safety

The issue of short-term rentals came to the city’s attention in part because of a group of concerned Evanston homeowners, who have started a petition asking city officials to take action. 

“We think this is an issue for the whole community, if you have a residential block and without any warning people can open up an unlicensed, transient hotel,” says Mark Rosati, whose neighbors on Ashland Avenue have advertised their home for rent on several sites. “It affects safety, security, quality of life.” 

As of press time, 127 people had signed a petition arguing that city officials should step in to regulate the practice. 

“The rooming houses are affecting our property values and they threaten our security and the safety of Evanston children,” the petition reads. “NO ONE WHO RENTS OUT ROOMS IN THEIR HOME BY THE NIGHT CAN ADEQUATELY SCREEN TENANTS FOUND ON THE INTERNET FOR CHILD PREDATORS OR CRIMINAL BACKGROUNDS.”

Attorney Kim Novi, who also lives on Ashland Avenue, says she believes city officials don’t even have to write new ordinances. According to Novi, existing city code already provides the regulation necessary to control short-term rentals. The existing ordinance surrounding lodging requires anyone operating a place of lodging to obtain a city license, while bed and breakfasts are allowed in residential districts (zoned R-1) only with a special use permit from the city.

“People move into R-1 with the expectation that there is not a commercial enterprise running out of the home next door,” says Novi. “When you move into R-1 and you pay the price that you pay for your homes and you pay exorbitant property taxes for the privilege of living in R-1, you have some reasonable expectations.”

Asked why the law department is crafting new regulations, assistant city attorney Ken Cox said the city code surrounding lodging establishments was not enough. 

“A lodging establishment is a defined term within the zoning ordinance, and it doesn’t necessarily capture all of these types of vacation rentals,” he said. “We wouldn’t be creating an ordinance unless we thought it was necessary.” 

Novi says her biggest concern about having neighbors renting out their home or part of their home is the possibility of diminished property values. Two-flats tend to be less expensive than single-family homes of the same size, she says, and a house where the owner is renting part out on a short-term basis is essentially a two-flat. 

Her other concern is the impact of having a business being run on the block in a residential neighborhood—a situation that means more activity and people coming and going, Novi says. 

“There is a safety issue, there is a peace of mind in knowing who are your neighbors,” she says. “When I see somebody in the alley and it’s late, I want to know that I know that person or that person’s supposed to be there. When you have a business with strangers coming and going in the middle of the night, you don’t have that same peace of mind.” 

Can Airbnb Actually Keep People in Their Homes?

While short-term rentals are creating strife on Ashland Avenue, one Airbnb user in northwest Evanston says her neighbors haven’t been concerned. When e-mails about the petition to regulate short-term rentals started circulating, Sue Gartzman says she heard from several neighbors who said they knew what she was doing, and didn’t think it was a problem. 

“Our neighbors are very supportive,” says the market research consultant. She and her husband, Howard, have been renting out one bedroom and a bathroom in their four-bedroom home since 2008. 

“It was right when the economy started tanking, and my business started tanking, too, so I thought, ‘What the heck?’” Gartzman says. She estimates she’s had at least 85 guests since she started using Airbnb.

The money they’ve earned from renting out a room is less than 5 percent of their total income, according to Gartzman, but it has made a difference. In that respect, she argues that short-term rentals can actually have a positive effect on property values by keeping people in their homes.

“This has helped us continue to pay our mortgage,” Gartzman says. “It’s kept us in the house and helped us pay for home repairs.” 

Every guest is also a source of potential tax revenue for the city, she adds, when they dine out at local restaurants or shop in Evanston stores. 

Gartzman says she and her husband have never had a concern for their safety, or for that of their 12-year-old son, who was 8 when they first started advertising on Airbnb. Because of her home’s location near Northwestern University, most of her renters are tied to the university in some way—whether that’s parents of kids moving on to campus, people applying for MBAs or parents with children at summer camp. The rest of her guests are mostly sightseers who are nervous about staying in the city or people attending events in Chicago who want to save money. 

“I’ve never had anyone who I had any fear about my own kid,” she says. “People who are wanting to stay with another family in a B&B type setting are not looking to do something undetected, steal, or hurt other people’s children.” 

Gartzman notes that she vets every potential guest through the site, which requires that both renters and leasers review one another, and has occasionally turned a people down (mostly for capacity reasons.) She also uses a keypad to let guests in and out, and changes the access code after each person leaves. Asked whether she contacted her neighbors before she started renting on Airbnb, Gartzman says she didn’t feel it was necessary. 

Renting on Airbnb has had personal as well as financial benefits for her family, according to Gartzman. She has hosted people from around the world, and now has friends in multiple different countries. Because of the ties to Northwestern University, Gartzman says the guests tend to be interesting, intellectual people, with whom her family can have good conversations.

“The enrichment of our lives by doing this has been so positive,” she says.

In the end, Gartzman says she hopes officials don’t create more regulation for homeowners like her, who are renting their own properties online. Landlords should probably stipulate in their leases whether tenants are allowed to put their properties up for short-term rental, she says, but homeowners should be allowed to do what they want. 

“I don’t think the city should be able to regulate what I do with my house,” she says. “If the hotel owners don’t like it, then step up their game.”