Short-term rental rules won´t solve housing crisis but they will help, city planner tells tribunal
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

Toronto’s short-term rental regulations won’t solve the city’s housing crisis but they will help stabilize the supply of homes and reduce the nuisance issues of noise, garbage and parking afflicting residential neighbourhoods and condos following five years of proliferating Airbnb-type units. That was the testimony of a senior city planner, the opening witness at a tribunal that will decide whether the new rules ever take effect.Caroline Samuel, who wrote the city staff report on the rental regulations, said Monday that the short-term rental zoning bylaw is less restrictive than the old rules because it renders the rentals a legally permitted use, which allows for home sharing across the city rather than just in the designated areas for existing commercial sleeping accommodations such as hotels, tourist houses and bed-and-breakfasts.About 60 people — residents in favour of the regulations and landlords concerned about their impact on the rental business — turned up for the opening statements in the first day of what is expected to be seven days of hearings in a Bay St. office tower.Samuel told the tribunal that city council designed the short-term rental regulations in response to mounting complaints and concerns that had been mounting since 2014. Council approved a set of rules that would limit the short-term rentals — a term of up to 28 days — to three rooms of a home which could be let 365 days a year or the rental of an entire home for up to 180 days.Secondary suites such as self-contained basement apartments could only be rented on a short-term basis by a long-term tenant, not the homeowner, under the city’s regulations. “In my opinion it is good planning to restrict the use of short-term rentals in secondary suites to only those that are separately and exclusively occupied as a principal residence. This helps ensure the use of the units remain residential and they stay in the housing supply,� Samu ...