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Health staff report rise in short-term rentals, outline licensing, safety and enforcement steps
Summary
Health department staff reported rapid growth in short-term rentals, outlined licensing requirements and safety inspections for tourist rooming houses, and said five cease-and-desist notices were issued covering 37 units.
City health staff on March 12 briefed the Board of Health on the department’s tourist rooming house (TRH) licensing effort, reporting substantial growth in listings and describing inspection priorities and enforcement steps.
Todd Schmidt, environmental health technician, told the board that five years ago the city had about 10 licensed short-term rental properties and that the number had grown to about 85 last year. Using the city’s host-compliance software, staff identified listings that remain unlicensed; Schmidt said the software showed about 254 listings last summer and 209 listings in February. He said the department has increased licensing through notification letters and inspections and expects roughly 125–150 licensed properties by the end of the current licensing period.
Schmidt said the primary goal of licensing is “the health and safety of people who live there, or the people that are staying.” Inspections focus on…
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