Hood River is at a tipping point. The county seems to be quickly changing from a vibrant rural county to an exclusive resort community where it's harder and harder for working folks to find an affordable place to live. One factor is the unprecedented growth in Short Term Rentals (STRs) which have started to impact housing affordabilty and neighborhood livability.
On August 20th the Board of Commissioners will be voting on changes to the zoning code for STRs.
We urge the Commissioners to follow the recommendation of their volunteer Planning Commission and require STRs to be the 'domicile' — real permanent home — of the STR operator. With this in place, Hood River residents can rent out a spare bedroom or even their whole house when on vacation, but it remains their home. This eliminates STRs as a source of funding for out-of-town investors but allows real residents to earn income, maybe the extra they need to stay in their home or weather economic hard times.
Hood River is being loved to death by sightseers and speculators. The number of vacation rentals and second homes (often financed by STR income) has doubled in just five years and are now 8% of Hood River's total housing stock. Given Hood River's housing crisis, it's far more important to help local folks get into their first home than it is to help outside investors win big in Hood River's home market.
Dark houses during the week with raucous weekend bashes — that's too familiar for more and more neighbors who complain about losing their sense of community. A real residency requirement gets rid of party house and public nuisance problems because the STR operator lives on site and is able to oversee guests.
Controlling nonresident STRs won't solve Hood River's affordability crunch by itself, but it's a healthy start toward lowering housing costs. It's what we need at this time to keep our county's diverse economy — and our livability.
Please sign this petition to encourage Hood River's Commissioners to limit STRs to real residents.
