The CDC’s eviction moratorium is set to expire June 30, putting millions of Americans who fell behind on their rent during the COVID-19 pandemic at risk (though the moratorium itselfhasn’t been particularly effective在阻止人们被驱逐出去）。尽管如此，如果房东选择将新空的单位变成短期租金而不是确保新的长期租户，那么新的驱逐浪潮也可能会损害城市的长期住房供应。这是Airbnb可能会利用的问题，但是该公司表示，它希望努力防止房东以这种方式利用与大流行有关的驱逐。
Airbnb周二宣布它将与城市合作，禁止房东列出由于租金未付款而被驱逐出租户的任何财产，以及该租户受到CDC Moratorium的保护。
Called the COVID-19 Renter Protection Policy, this new Airbnb policy will be in place until the end of the year, at which point the company will review it, get input from cities, and decide whether to extend it.Airbnb needs the participation of cities in order to prevent landlords from turning pandemic-evicted units into short-term rentals. The platform says it will ban such listings “when a city notifies us” that those listings are located at rental properties that fit the policy’s requirements.
“By working with cities to prevent landlords from using our marketplace to profit from removing a vulnerable long-term tenant from their home based on nonpayment of rent, we believe we can send a strong message that will help keep people in their homes at this critical time,” the company said in a blog post.
More than 11 million Americans are behind on their rent, according to a最近的分析, and the end of the national eviction moratorium could mean an“雪崩”of evictions that would create a housing disaster on top of the affordable housing crisis many cities are already facing.In some instances, Airbnb has been blamed for flaming that affordability crisis;一种2018年报告by the Office of the New York City Comptroller found that the short-term rental platform contributed to city rent increases of 9.2% between 2009 and 2016 (Airbnb denied the findings, taking issue with the methodology).
Preventing landlords from using these forthcoming evictions to create more Airbnb units may be difficult because there’s often not a way for cities to report or review pandemic-related evictions. The company told华盛顿邮报it’s addressing this “through a new portal it built to enable governments to manage short-term-rental policies.”
Airbnb named Andrew Kalloch, current senior policy development manager at the company, as head of COVID-19 Housing Policy to coordinate the renter protection initiative. Kalloch will “engage cities on implementing” the policy over the coming weeks, according to the company.
“Since our start in 2007, when two of our cofounders put air mattresses on their living room floor to earn money to make their rent, Airbnb has always been a platform dedicated to helping people stay in their homes and reap the benefits of home sharing,” the company said in its blog. “This commitment has never been stronger than today in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic—and it is why we are doing our part to disincentivize evictions, in collaboration with cities nationwide.”