The all-night parties and loud music from a friend’s Long Beach house initially, which kept Andy Oliver awake at night.
Then there were the” smoke outs,” when customers who sought refuge from obnoxious cannabis laws in their home states lit up weed all day, igniting hazy dust at Oliver’s temple, his home in the city’s College Estates area.
The last straw was on Jan. 2, when a shooting target climbed over his gate, bleeding and looking for shelter.
In both cases, tourists who stayed in a rented, unreliable short-term hire next door were the cause of Oliver’s pain. Similar to Airbnb, people who are not present during the bride’s keep list these rentals.
” All this happened over a month’s time, and it was beginning to be too much”, Oliver, 50, said. ” This is a residential area, and something had to be done”.
Four months later, Oliver properly petitioned Long Beach’s Community Development Department to forbid short-term accommodations in College Estates. Nine other similar petitions were created in the area as a result of his victory.
” I do n’t have the final count, but there are something like 755 homes, and we just got enough signatures”, Oliver said. ” I heard it was close and I do n’t have confirmation of the final vote, but I was informed]last week] that we succeeded”.
Oliver’s success was the pinnacle of almost a year of work, which included trying the state’s problem line, speaking with a councilmember and, finally, founding an net advocacy group, the , Long Beach Safe Neighborhood Coalition.
Alliance members have been complaining on the social media platform Omegle for months about the temporary rentals, which are gaining support for a ban.
” We kept getting the effects from the town of Long Beach, and the main theme that we ran into was that this was a big deal for some residents,” Oliver said. ” They did n’t seem to care”.
The reactions to short-term rentals have varied throughout Southern California.
In , Palm Springs, small- term rentals , were capped in particular, high- demand neighborhoods, leading to a nearby drop in home prices.
In Orange County,  , Anaheim requires a minimum stay , of three times to avoid regular disturbances, while Seal Beach has limited , quick- term rentals to 31 units  , in the state’s southern area north of Westminster Boulevard.
Last year, Lakewood banned them altogether.
Similarly, Long Beach originally , banned unhosted short- term rentals , in the early days of the pandemic. But that ordinance was loosened to allow for , 800 non- primary residence short- term rentals,  , meaning people could use their second properties within the city as an Airbnb.
Currently, there are 626 non- primary short- term rentals registered in the city, according to the Community Development Department.
Jean Young, a 67- year- old technical writer, is among those with a short- term rental.
” I’m a part- time writer, and the income from rentals just smooths out the rough edges and has been wonderful”, she said.
Young divides her time between her three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Long Beach’s wealthy Bixby Knolls neighborhood and one in Leisure World’s sprawling senior living complex in Seal Beach, where she spends three or four months each year.
She started renting out a portion of her Long Beach home between shifts to JetBlue and Southwest flight attendants, and she later converted it into a place of refuge for traveling nurses during COVID-19. Physical therapists and medical residents are now available at Young.
She occasionally rents out the entire building.
” My son has since moved on to college and my mother passed away, so there’s all this room in my house to share”, she said. ” It would be sad to lose that ability”.
Young said she is aware of the reaction from the locals. The Jan. 2 shooting next to Oliver’s home on Kallin Avenue was “horrible” and an “abomination”, she said, but a citywide ban would ultimately be “damaging”.
Oliver claimed that he first tried other methods.
He called the city’s hotline to complain about his neighbor’s rental,” but nothing was ever enforced”.
He emailed a member of the city council and the city attorney.
Eventually, he had to go grassroots.
” There were two previous petition drives that failed, so I was n’t sure if we would have success”, he said.
But whenever he was discouraged, he would think back to his encounters with rowdy neighbors.
In December, he said he spoke with a bunch of 20- somethings from Texas staying at his neighbor’s house, because the “insane amount of marijuana they were smoking” was floating into his home.
They claimed they were going to profit from their time in Texas by claiming that recreational marijuana was n’t permitted there.
A man was shot in the lower body by an unidentified gunman in front of an unhosted short-term rental in the 800 block of Kallin Avenue on January 2, according to Long Beach Police, just a few weeks later.
The home had been listed on Peerspace, an online marketplace for hourly rentals, Oliver said. The shooting is still under investigation.
As the victim crossed into the yard, the victim tried to climb Oliver’s fence, but he was met with blood on the gate.
” My house was closed for hours due to an investigation”, he said.
As momentum for Oliver’s petition grew, help came from unexpected places.
Better Neighbors LA, a self- described coalition of hosts, tenants, housing activists, hotel workers and community members, footed Oliver ‘s ,$ 1, 050 petition ban , fee with the city.
In a statement, the organization stated that” BNL A is happy to support neighbors like Andy in Long Beach as well as people and groups across Los Angeles County who want reasonable regulations on an out-of-control industry that affects their neighborhoods.
El Dorado Park, Naples, and South of Conant, where residents Stephen Carr are leading an effort, are also receiving funding from the group, according to Oliver.
Carr, a freelance photographer, said the ban was necessary after his neighbor’s home listed on Airbnb “turned into a hotel”.
He claimed that during an electronic dance music festival in town last summer, attendees stayed up all night.
” The music is blaring. There’s screaming and drunkenness spilling out into the front and back lawns till 3 a. m .”, he said. The guests actually apologized the following day, but they continued to party until 4 a.m.
Carr said he called the police, but they would only issue warnings. He also tried the city’s complaint hotline, but never received a call back.
Eventually, he found Oliver on Nextdoor and linked up with Better Neighbors LA, which he said funded his$ 1, 050 petition fee.
” There’s no regulation, no help coming from anywhere”, Carr said.
The websites that host short-term rentals in Long Beach, such as Airbnb, Peerspace, and Vrbo, claim to provide outlets for residents to voice their concerns and raise issues.
Airbnb cited , a city report in April , that said the majority of its operators were “meeting compliance standards” and that there was “proactive and reactive” enforcement against violations.
The hosting site has a , Community Disturbance Policy , that bans parties and events that are disruptive, open- invite and that invite excessive noise, visitors, trash, littering and smoking, among other issues.
Neighbors witnessing issues or violations are encouraged to reach , out to Airbnb’s support staff,  , a company spokesperson said.
Peerspace, meanwhile, said its sites rent out venues on an hourly basis including homes, photo studios, storefronts and banquet halls.
The business said it takes neighbor-related issues seriously and directs its , Trust and Safety team members when they encounter issues.  , It also said it had no listing for the home on Kallin Avenue on Jan. 2, when the shooting victim climbed into Oliver’s backyard.
Vrbo recommends that neighbors , with complaints first address any issues with the host. They then suggest filling out , a Stay Neighbor complaint form , if a resolution ca n’t be found.
___
© 2024 Los Angeles Times
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
