HomeMy WebLinkAboutletter to city council re STRMary Margolis
1239 Campbell Ave. #5
Port Angeles, WA 98362
June 1, 2023
RE: Short Term Rentals
Dear Mayor Dexter and City Council Members:
I am writing to urge you to please consider a moratorium on the amount of housing being used in our community as short term rentals.
I live and work in the city of Port Angeles. I am a renter. In my job as a program assistant for Clallam Jefferson County Pro Bono Lawyers, I work with people being evicted and/or
on the verge of experiencing homelessness.
Our agency recently held a seminar titled Tenant Rights. When we advertised on Facebook we received many negative comments about “helping slackers that don’t pay their rent” or “enabling
people.”
Here’s what I want you to know: the average age of attendees at our seminar was 65. Many are facing eviction and are being priced out of the area. There is no place for them to go.
We had one client that is 87 who is being evicted. Sadly, this is not our first 80 year old client and it will not be our last.
The property owners say it’s their right to do what they want with their property. Another common theme I hear and read about is that tenants destroy their homes and then are not held
responsible. But the reality we are seeing is that tenants are being asked to leave homes under the guise of the home being remodeled or going to be sold. Many times, this is not
the actual case. The newly vacated home becomes a short term rental or is rented out at a much higher rate.
If you look at what is happening around our state, it’s easy to see the rate of those experiencing homelessness is rising.
It is my opinion that this is a community problem. We owe it to each other to look out for our citizens, especially our elderly population. To me, it is heartless to discard, evict,
or otherwise not renew leases to those who are older, disabled, or poor. Poverty is not a crime and should not be treated as such. But yet, property owners want to rent their vacation
rentals for 3 months of the year and let their home sit vacant for the remaining nine months. All this while bemoaning the fact that there are so many in our community experiencing
homelessness.
Please put a cap on how many vacation rentals are allowed within the city limits. Not all of us who rent are bad tenants. We need to have options. Also, please consider that many
of the vacation rentals could be purchased by local first time home buyers.
Thank you for your attention to this difficult matter.
Sincerely,
Mary Margolis