To the editor:
It is clear that we need a well-thought-out approach to affordable housing. It is a necessary part of this community.
What is not clear at all is how limiting short-term rentals (STRs) will improve the stock of affordable housing. Surely, we ought not to have wedding farms whose impact on neighbors is vast, but that has nothing to do with affordable housing. Limiting large corporations from buying up blocks of housing for STRs might be a worthy consideration, though probably not legal. Again, how will this affect affordable housing?
I am puzzled by the presumptuousness of the selectboard in telling me what I can and cannot do with my house. It seems an egregious overreach. Should I move out of my house, but allow my sons to manage it for me as an Airbnb or VRBO and reap the profits as they figure out their next steps, with this legislation, I would be unable to do so. And I am fully in support of M. Loubert’s letter.
The question, too, was raised about the stock of STR houses: how many of these, were they not STRs, be priced such that they would add to the stock of affordable housing? Out of pure curiosity, what is the definition of an affordable house, apartments, or condos?
We should work hard to figure out affordable housing. It is crucial for our town, but this approach is not the panacea that it is being portrayed as.
Timothy Eustis
Great Barrington
