Residents: Don’t Ban Airbnb
/By Jano Tantongco
jtantongco@longislandergroup.com
Lifelong Huntington resident Joe Fusaro speaks Tuesday, saying he is opposed to the prohibition of Airbnb in Huntington, citing a need to prevent “brain drain,” as well as the need to preserve an alternative source of income for residents.
Self-proclaimed Airbnb hosts and guests voiced support of the home-sharing service during the Huntington Town Board’s meeting Tuesday night, when the board hosted a public hearing on proposed legislation that would prevent the services from being offered in town.
Huntington Councilman Mark Cuthbertson and Councilwoman Tracey Edwards are co-sponsoring the legislation, which is broken down into two parts.
The first would prevent accessory apartments from being used as “transient” rental properties, which is a term that would be created by the law and is defined as residential properties rented for a period of less than 30 days. The second resolution would prohibit town-issued rental permits from being issued to owners of transient rental properties.
Cuthbertson said the proposal was spurred by complaints from constituents who claim to have been negatively affected by the services. However, before the hearing began, Cuthbertson said he is open to compromise and amending the legislation.
“Frankly, the easiest way to draft that legislation was in the most restrictive manner, which is a ban. Because, to change it later, we can always to change it to something less restrictive,” Cuthbertson said. “I have a very open mind tonight about something less than a ban. We’re here to listen to people.”
Jeannette Bernardo, who said she has rented her apartment through Airbnb since April 2016, lives on Makamah Beach Road in Northport. At the meeting, she said guests contribute to the town’s local economy, giving an example of a guest who ate at the local restaurant, Intermezzo, for six nights during their stay.
“I am so excited that I get to share my space, my home, my view, the marshland, the preserve, the Town of Huntington,” Bernardo said. “There are Airbnbs on Fire Island, out in the Hamptons. I just can’t figure out why the Town of Huntington would want to put a straight up ban on it.”
Jeannette Bernardo, of Northport, an Airbnb host, speaks during Tuesday’s town board meeting.
A lifelong resident of the town, Joe Fusaro grew up in Huntington Station and now lives in the Chester Hills community. He thanked the board for their work, but said a ban on Airbnb could further instigate the much-discussed “brain drain” of Long Island.
“In my opinion, we want to encourage tourism, the promotion of businesses, while keeping our residents and not discouraging them, therefore I am against these proposals,” Fusaro said. “Let’s do what we can to keep our young people and our seniors.”
He added that those residents like his son, Alex, who also spoke at the hearing, rely on their Airbnb income to pay their bills.
There were no speakers in support of the town’s proposed ban during the hearing. Most of the 22 speakers explicitly spoke in favor of the service and asked the board members to reconsider and amend the legislation.
Josh Meltzer, head of New York Public Policy for Airbnb, submitted a letter to the editor regarding the town board’s proposal to Long Islander News on Jan. 3. In the letter, which appears in the “Opinion” section of this issue, Meltzer said around 65 Airbnb hosts in the Town of Huntington took in 3,000 guests in 2016. He added that a majority of the hosts were women with an average age of 43.
“Far from taking permanent housing off the market, Huntington residents are sharing their own homes to cope with soaring property taxes in an era of stagnant wages,” Meltzer said. “In fact, the majority of listings in Huntington are for ‘shared spaces’ — meaning an extra bedroom in someone’s home.”
