Oahu residents and visitors are being deceived by the short-term rental industry when they are told Oahu offers thousands of bed-and-breakfast (B&Bs) accommodations. The vast majority of these lodging businesses sprawled across our residential zoned neighborhoods are fake B&Bs.
A real B&B is a property that offers bedrooms inside the home and serves guests daily hot breakfast in a communal dining area where there is contact with the host and other guests — the definition of a B&B around the world, but not on Oahu.
Most fake illegal B&Bs in residential neighborhoods are renting ohana units, studios, attached in-law apartment and accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Oahu’s Land Use Ordinance defines a B&B as short-term rental (less than 30-day stays) that is occupied by an owner, lessee, operator or proprietor of the same detached dwelling. This is misleading.
This is wrong and damaging to Oahu’s residential communities. The purpose of residential zoning is to provide housing opportunities for residents, not hotel rooms for tourists. Ohana units, studios, attached in-law apartments and ADUs are Oahu’s most affordable housing options and desperately needed as long-term rentals. They are ideally suited for both young and old, students, singles and couples, who either cannot afford or do not need an entire house or entire apartment to rent long-term.
City Council Bill 89 and other bills that allow fake B&Bs to proliferate are flawed strategies for the Council to follow. According to a state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism report, Oahu is facing a shortage of more than 22,000 homes by 2025. The same report specifically cites the growth of illegal short-term rentals has contributed to this shortage. Oahu needs every home, ohana unit, studio, attached in-law apartment and ADU it currently has to help take care of the housing needs for local residents.
Let’s correctly redefine short-term rentals and more importantly protect our residential housing options for residents only, not as mini-hotel operations.
Bill 89 and a couple of other Council bills put the cart before the horse — they propose new short-term rental permitting (fake B&Bs and TVUs) before even getting a grasp on enforcement and closing the 8,000-plus currently illegal operations openly flaunting the law. Bill 89 includes problematic and unproven enforcement tools. Until the city understands what it can control, it must seriously work on, and perfect, enforcement first — only then can permitting be considered. This is the only reasonable approach to getting much-needed residential housing into residential use and relieving the housing crisis.
Bill 89 contains other glaring deficiencies. It requires a homeowner’s exemption on the property tax for a permit, but allows the “proprietor” or “operator” to get the permit — a perfect scenario for abuse. It also mimics the current loose enforcement procedures with allowing drastic reductions in fines and penalties — the historic practice of the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP).
The mayor, DPP and the city’s Corporation Counsel have not demonstrated the political willpower and competence to deal with even the most egregious offenders — working for years to build one case amassing $600,000-plus in fines then settling for $5,000.
Enforcement must be proven to work before any consideration is given to opening permitting.
Larry Bartley, executive director of Save O‘ahu Neighborhoods, was a member of the Mayor’s 2017-18 Task Force on Short-term Regulations.
