Report urges city to accept federal funding for short-term rental rules enforcement

A year after the city imposed a licensing regime for short-term rental units, such as those listed on Airbnb and VRBO, new federal funding is poised to help crack down on anyone breaking the rules.

A new report seeks city council approval to accept a grant of just under $770,000 over the next two years, which would boost enforcement of the units the city began licensing on April 1, 2024.

But some neighbours of such properties say enforcement is falling short, so far.

Craig, who asked that his last name not be used, said city rules haven’t solved issues in his downtown building, where about one-quarter of all units are short-term rentals.

“Our quality of life is adversely impacted on a regular basis by these units,” he said.

While wild parties are the most common problem, others include domestic violence, hallway fights and at least one case of human trafficking, said Craig.

“There (are) people who are afraid to leave.… You don’t want to leave your suite when there’s people causing issues in the hallway. You’re kind of trapped,” he said.

The city’s rules allow owners to operate one short-term rental unit, which must be their primary residence. However, permanent residents of Winnipeg, and corporations wholly owned by Winnipeggers, are permitted to rent out one primary residence and up to three short-term rental units they don’t live at via a grandfather clause, as long as they owned the properties before Feb. 23, 2023.

Craig said that means incidents can pile up at units with off-site owners and city bylaw officers often can’t immediately respond.

“The bylaw needs to be enforceable to actually mean anything,” he said.

Downtown resident Mike Diehl agreed.

“We (typically) don’t know where the owners live, exactly, or how far away they are when something needs to be addressed. This is ghost hotel style,” said Diehl. “You kind of wish there would be some… upper limit (in terms) of the number of short-term rentals that can exist in a building.”

He welcomed the city’s plan to add enforcement but said condo boards also need more power to prevent short-term rental operators from buying housing units.

According to the city report, the federal government believes cracking down on non-compliant short-term rentals could help boost the country’s supply of long-term housing.

Coun. Vivian Santos, chairwoman of council’s community services committee, said she hasn’t personally received complaints about short-term rentals since city licensing took effect, though other councillors have.

“I think the enforcement part would really help. I know there have been complaints about some illicit, illegal activity,” said Santos (Point Douglas).

The city plans to use the funding to identify any gaps in its bylaws, ramp up enforcement and better use technology to monitor the industry.

Steps would include: adding an enforcement and policy analyst, a licensing enforcement inspector and an information technology programmer analyst; using new technology to detect bookings for unlicensed properties; and creating a new scheduling system to streamline inspections.

“I think it would be very helpful for the community bylaw enforcement team to have some temporary additional help,” said Santos.

In Winnipeg, there are 679 active short-term rental licences in effect, while two licences have been removed for breaking the rules and 64 complaints have been made through 311 since licensing began, said city spokeswoman Pam McKenzie, in an email.

The city’s licensing program also imposed an accommodation tax on short-term rentals, which is currently set at six per cent.

A full city report on short-term rentals is expected in June, said Santos.

A spokeswoman for the short-term rental industry said she hopes more enforcement can help crack down on what she believes to be a small portion of operators breaking city rules.

“It only benefits us if the bad hosts are weeded out. The quicker, the better in my opinion,” said Melanie Mitchell, president of the Manitoba Association of Short Term Rental Owners.

Mitchell said the industry provides jobs and needed accommodations.

And while the federal government blames short-term rentals for taking up scarce housing units, Mitchell believes they have little impact on the overall supply.

“You could put them all out of business in one day and still have a huge housing supply issue in Winnipeg,” she said.

Mitchell said it would be unfair for the city to rescind its decision to allow some existing short-term rentals to continue operating even though owners don’t live on site.

“People made their business decisions based on being grandfathered (in), so that should be the end of that discussion. And the grandfathering criteria was so strict that cut out probably half of the short-term rentals in Winnipeg already,” she said.

Council is expected to vote next month on accepting the federal enforcement funding and the proposed plan to spend it.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga