Around 250 people attended a tenant’s town hall in Bozeman on Sunday where members of Bozeman Tenants United urged city commissioners to ban some types of short term rentals as a way to add more housing inventory for local renters.
The city currently does not allow non-owner occupied short term rentals known as “type 3” in residential zones, but Bozeman Tenants United wants to ban them entirely. The group also wants a ban on type 2 rentals, which are owner occupied. They include accessory dwelling units and duplexes.
“We know that banning short term rentals will not be a silver bullet to end the housing crisis," said organizer Emily LaShelle, "but what it will do is open up a lot more housing immediately for people like me and people that I love who need housing right now.
“It will make sure that landlords will not be able to raise rent by thousands of dollars because we have somewhere else we can go."
Two of the four commissioners at Sunday’s town hall said they support banning type 3 short term rentals. Deputy Mayor Terry Cunningham said he doesn't want to formally commit to a position while city staff research the impacts before the council’s next work session.
“May I point out I am absolutely open to the possibility of a type 3 ban, we are just not there yet,” he said.
Some commissioners said they want to see more research on how type 2 owner occupied bans could impact local residents who rent out their properties.
Bozeman Tenants United also wants the city to use funds from its $1.2 million community housing fund to incentivize property owners to convert short-term rentals to long-term units for locals.
None of the commissioners supported funding this through the community housing fund, but Cunningham brought up another potential funding mechanism: a billintroduced in the state Legislature Friday that would allow cities to tax short-term rentals to fund local rent programs.
During the discussion on incentivizing property owners to rent local, Commissioner Jennifer Madgic highlighted how the rent local program in Big Sky is funded in part by the Big Sky Resort resort tax.
