Hamilton's short-term rental bylaw halted so city staff can focus on plan to stop renovictions
Samantha Beattie | CBC News | Posted: June 1, 2023 8:24 PM | Last Updated: June 1, 2023
The city had planned to begin enforcement June 1, but has delayed until later this year
The City of Hamilton has hit pause on enforcing its short-term rental ban.
The new bylaw was supposed to go into effect Thursday, which would've made it illegal for property owners to rent out homes for less than 28 consecutive days on sites like Airbnb if they don't actually live there.
Council passed the bylaw in January to discourage people from buying investment properties for short-term rentals, in the hopes it would add hundreds of units back onto the long-term rental market.
But in a message posted to Twitter Wednesday, the city said the bylaw is paused due to "a council shift in priorities" and that the bylaw would be revisited later in the year.
Council hasn't turned its focus away from the housing affordability crisis, said Coun. Alex Wilson (Ward 13) in an interview with CBC Hamilton. Instead, the city is facing a staff resource crunch and needs to "triage" some housing initiatives over others.
"Unfortunately we can't do everything all at once," Wilson said.
Halting renovictions a top priority
A top priority is to stop renovictions, Wilson said. That's when landlords evict tenants to renovate units and list the unit at a much higher rent price.
The previous council had requested staff develop a renoviction bylaw to ban the practice. Last month, staff came back with a report that instead dismissed the idea.
Council has since told them to go back a second time and develop a "full suite of options to halt renovictions within the city," according to a staff update released in May. This enforcement program will take precedent over the short-term rental bylaw.
"We literally don't have enough staff because staff didn't do their assignment," Coun. Nrinder Nann (Ward 3) told CBC Hamilton.
Wilson said the housing crisis is getting worse because the province lifted rent control for newer units built after Nov. 15, 2018 and doesn't have any rules in place for how much landlords can increase rent between tenants.
"Why do we have to focus on renovictions? Because the province hasn't and is instead pouring gasoline on the fire," said Wilson.