DC AG and City Council target short-term rental companies

With the D.C. City Council set to have its first hearing today on legislation regulating short-term rental companies like Airbnb, labor-supported ShareBetter on April 24 released a video that shows "more and more homes[being] used for tourist rentals" particularly in communities of color where gentrification is a growing concern. And yesterday, news brokethat the District’s Attorney General is suing a California company for allegedly turning units in four D.C. apartment buildings into illegal short-term rentals. “My office is using all of the tools available to us to preserve affordable housing for District residents,” AG Karl Racine said. “We will aggressively pursue individuals and companies that seek to circumvent the District’s rent-control laws, and we are actively investigating other instances where apartment managers or owners are treating rent-controlled apartments like hotel rooms and renting them out on sharing-economy platforms.”

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