Arizona’s Short-Term Rentals Impact Affordable Housing
In northern Arizona, the rise of short-term rental properties has significantly contributed to a decrease in affordable housing options, prompting local officials to urge state lawmakers to allow municipal regulation of such units.
Williams Mayor Don Dent has highlighted a concerning trend: over the past half-decade, short-term rentals have claimed approximately 15% of the city’s 1,500 housing units. Mayor Dent proposes limiting this to 10%, a move currently hindered by state legislation.
“Those short-term rentals are taking properties that used to be workforce housing, long-term rentals that people lived in, their families lived in. They were there for teachers, firefighters. Any of your, what we call, essential workers,” Dent explains. The Williams City Council, alongside Sedona, Prescott, Jerome, Flagstaff, and Cottonwood, has petitioned the state legislature to amend this law.
The expansion of short-term rentals has adversely affected Section 8 vouchers, which are vital for providing rental assistance to low-income families. Williams has seen a decrease from 50 supported units to merely 17, as landlords opt for more lucrative short-term guest arrangements.
Mayor Dent recounts the plight of a resident, “I have a lady right now that contacts me almost weekly, who was moved out of a Section 8 home by the landlord. That home has been turned into a short-term rental. She has four children. She still qualifies for a voucher, but she can’t find a landlord in our area to use that voucher.”
However, state legislators argue that empowering cities to regulate short-term rentals could infringe upon property owners’ rights.
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