Short-term rental (STR) owners with money in the game are trying to block any real regulation.
But there must be limitations and fair taxation, as the ability to live in Port Angeles is more important than visiting it.
Housing is for living in, not just turning a profit.
Do as you will where you reside, paying your fair share as a business of course.
But when houses are bought as second or third properties to pad income, those without that financial privilege are priced out of the housing market.
Limited supply has driven the soaring housing prices and STR properties that aren’t the owner’s primary residence aren’t being lived in.
Employers like our hospital and schools see potential hires that want to work here unable to accept quality living-wage jobs because they cannot find housing to rent or buy.
Local jobs can’t help our community if there’s no local place to live.
We don’t want to become yet another beautiful place in America that no one can afford to live in; where those working to serve the tourists are forced to commute from less-desirable areas that are still affordable.
Your city is trying to create responsible regulations to ameliorate the housing crisis and its many knock-on effects, but the privileged few are fighting to keep their profits completely unrestricted.
Don’t let the self-interested overwhelm the reform of our flawed regulations.
Come tell the city what you think.
Greg Maust
Port Angeles