Labor-Community Coalition Supports Regulations for Short-Term Rentals

Filling the steps of New Haven City Hall. a coalition of unions, church and community groups, joined by Mayor Justin Elicker, announced their support for legislation initiated by New Haven Rising regulating non-owner occupied short term rentals. The legislation, part of an affordability agenda, is under consideration by the Board of Alders. At a packed hearing it passed committee with a favorable vote and now goes on to the full Board of Alders for any amendments and action.

As Yale and its partner developers move to transform New Haven into a biotech and travel destination, the question for working class residents has become, “a boom for whom?”.

“Development and growth should translate into good housing and jobs for working people, not displacement,” they said, releasing data showing that over 1,000 short-term rentals were listed this summer in New Haven, while, since 2020, rents are up 53% and home unaffordability by 345%. 

Many short-term rentals managed by corporate entities are advertised in luxury housing buildings that have been recently developed. The growth in short-term rentals is estimated to have cost New Haveners up to $29.9 million in extra rent over the last three years.

Over the summer, New Haven Rising volunteers collected over 4,500 petitions in support of three demands: regulating non-owner-occupied short-term rentals, a fully-funded city where Yale pays its fair share, and better paying jobs that allow New Haven families to live and thrive.

“We are in an affordability crisis. The rents are too high. Buying a home is out of reach. Racial inequality has only grown,” declared New Haven Rising director Rev Scott Marks. “The racial income gap between Black and white workers has doubled between 2011 and 2024.”

“I am a young Black man who born and raised in New Haven,” said canvasser Lamar Alston. “I want to see a New Haven where residents come before profits and families like mine can afford to stay in the community they call home. Today we are taking one step of many needed to make that dream a reality.”

Clara Dewey, one of the youth who knocked on doors said, “For all this money coming into the city we'e united to make it clear,” she said. “New Haven is not for sale!”