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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, July 13, 2019
License: Sites like Airbnb and VRBO almost never list addresses and
tracking down owners, operators of illegal rentals takes detective work
Continued from Page A1
realize they needed a license.
But, Estes added, “we have had some
people who have said they’re not going to
comply.”
Two weeks after the city’s deadline, the
city has yet to start fining anyone.
Planning staff and consultants are still
sorting out who has a permit and who does
not, and will continue to refine data on
where rentals that have not reported to the
city are actually located.
Detective work
A general search on Airbnb for homes
and rooms available for short-term rental
in Astoria brings up dozens (even hun-
dreds) of matches — not all of them actu-
ally in Astoria. They include a mix of sin-
gle- or two-room rentals that would likely
qualify as legal and entire homes in res-
idential neighborhoods, which are not
legal.
Sites like Airbnb and VRBO almost
never list addresses and tracking down
the owners and operators of illegal rentals
takes detective work.
Estes said it is still not clear exactly
how many Airbnb-type rentals Astoria
even has. In 2017, former City Councilor
Cindy Price had compiled an informal list
of more than 60 rentals, but Estes says her
list was not comprehensive.
For people the city knows are breaking
the law, Estes said, the next step is code
enforcement.
But the city often still needs to track
down the physical addresses of the rent-
als, names of property owners, their mail-
ing addresses if they live elsewhere, their
phone numbers.
People get into the Airbnb business for
any number of reasons. Their decision to
pursue an official homestay license — or
not — varies just as much.
For some, the renewal and inspec-
tion fees associated with the license, an
increase in the city’s hotel tax and a new
county hotel tax are onerous. Astoria
raised its tax from 9% to 11% in 2017 to
help pay for parks. Then the county intro-
duced a new 1% tax in January.
Richard Bracke relies on the income
from his rental to help pay his mort-
“I don’t want a roommate,” he said. “I
shouldn’t be forced to have a roommate
and that’s what they’re trying to do, like
I’m supposed to cure the problems of this
alleged housing shortage.”
For Katrina Morrell Gasser, the com-
munity and business liaison at Tongue
Point Job Corps Center, her Airbnb pro-
vided an important supplemental income.
She complied with city rules when she
started renting out a basement bedroom
in 2016, but decided not to apply for the
city’s license and has shut down her rental
‘I dON’T THINK THERE WAS ANy dOuBT
IN My MINd THAT I WAS GOING TO CONTINuE.
IT’S KINd OF My SuMMER JOB.’
Lacy Brown | Astoria resident who rents out an upstairs room and a basement suite in her home
gage after personal upheavals put him in
a financial bind. He testified against the
homestay license at city hearings last year.
Other hosts, Bracke included, say their
profits are relatively small, but the small
income stream is important.
“Until I don’t know what happens, I
will have to do this,” Bracke said.
When the City Council first discussed
the possibility of a license, some council-
ors argued the rentals take away possible
housing from people in need of long-term
options. But former Mayor Arline LaMear
worried about people who rely on Airbnb
income to maintain older homes. She
thought it unlikely that these same peo-
ple were interested in having a full-time
roommate.
For Bracke, the ability to rent out a
room on a short-term basis is an import-
ant freedom.
for the time being.
She understands and is sympathetic
to the city’s position, but the license and
inspection fees and increased taxes were
factors.
“The space is a room in my basement,”
she said. She didn’t think people would
want to pay the price she would need to
ask now to make the endeavor worthwhile.
“I was uncomfortable with how much
I would have to spend to break even,” she
said.
It’s too bad, she thinks. She is a
fourth-generation Astorian and proud of
her community.
“I genuinely enjoyed saying, ‘This is
my city, welcome,’” she said.
‘My summer job’
Lacy Brown, a teacher at Warrenton
Grade School who lives in Astoria, has
rented out out an upstairs room and a base-
ment suite in her home for the past three
years. She decided to continue and apply
for the city license.
Because she was already in good stand-
ing with the city, the fees she paid were
slightly less — a $150 renewal fee rather
than the full $500 required for new appli-
cations. Much of the information she
needed to submit to the city she already
had at hand from going through a condi-
tional use process to operate the rentals in
prior years.
“I don’t think there was any doubt in
my mind that I was going to continue,”
Brown said. “It’s kind of my summer job.”
She also loved hosting people, wel-
coming them into her home, showing off
Astoria.
The license was more of an annoy-
ance than anything, she said. Just another
hoop she had to jump through, but Heidi
Dlubac, a contract planner the city hired
specifically to handle the homestay lodg-
ing license, walked her through every step.
“I think as much as I didn’t want to go
through the process, she made it really
easy,” Brown said.
But it doesn’t seem to be quite as lucra-
tive a business as it used to be.
Brown was advised to pass the costs of
higher hotel taxes to the visitors renting
her rooms, a strategy she tested this spring
to poor results.
“When I raised rates, I saw the impact
on bookings,” she said. With the increased
tax rates and additional city fees, she’s see-
ing more of the costs of running her busi-
ness come directly out of her pocket. “If
anything, I’ve had to lower my rates,” she
said.
“I think it’s still working fine,” she
added, “but I don’t know if it’s something
I’ll do long term.”
Project: Standard list of conditions include
the need to submit landscaping, lighting plans
Building: ‘These are working people
who can’t afford to live where they work’
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Continued from Page A1
Postlewait, who works
as the executive vice pres-
ident for the nonprofit
lender Craft3, has said he
plans to offer 32 apart-
ments at the complex for
long-term rental slightly
below market rate. The 34
remaining units would be
used as short-term rentals
and help keep prices for the
long-term units low.
For the past few years,
city leaders have discussed
the need for affordable and
workforce housing, but
have struggled with how
to create or incentivize
development.
City planning staff rec-
ommended approval of
Postlewait’s
Northpost
Apartments with a standard
list of conditions, including
items like the need to sub-
mit landscaping and light-
ing plans.
Both the uses — multi-
family dwelling and vaca-
tion lodging — are allowed
outright on the property.
The only person to pro-
vide testimony at the pub-
lic
hearing
Thursday
Nostran sees it as a commu-
nity effort.
“We’re hoping to make
this a community proj-
ect and First Presbyterian
Church would just be the
catalyst,” he said. “There’s
every hope and certainty
that we’ll be able to, in a
couple of years I hope, turn
this around.”
Van Nostran and mem-
bers of his congregation
began looking for buildings
they might be able to buy
and offer as low-cost hous-
ing last year. The pastor pre-
viously served on the city’s
homelessness solutions task
force and is a board mem-
ber for the Astoria Warming
Center.
“From everything we’ve
read and seen, affordable
and available housing is in a
desperate shortage,” he said.
The congregants inter-
ested in financially backing
an effort to provide housing
believe churches and other
nonprofits could perhaps
have more flexibility than a
traditional developer.
Social service organiza-
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
Property near Safeway is slated for an apartment project.
besides Postlewait and
project manager Randy
Stemper was Gai Williams,
who owns property to the
north next to the Columbia
River.
“I must say I’m thrilled
about it,” she told the
committee.
She has had trouble sell-
ing her property because of
the run-down appearance
of the land Postlewait is
purchasing for the North-
post Apartments.
She hopes he can also do
something about the prop-
erty immediately next door
to her, an empty lot cov-
ered in blackberry bushes
that has long been home
to feral cats and where she
has seen evidence of drug
use and homeless camps.
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
A building on Marine Drive could be used for affordable and
workforce housing.
tions in Astoria have noted a
need for low-cost housing as
clients transition from a life
on the streets or after weath-
ering other setbacks. Van
Nostran knows of people
who slept at the warming
center during the winter and
worked during the day. They
struggled to save up enough
money to afford rising rents
or cover the upfront costs of
moving into an apartment.
“These are working peo-
ple who can’t afford to live
where they work,” Van Nos-
tran said.
Business owners at the
homelessness
solutions
task force meetings dis-
cussed difficulties in hiring
staff because people could
not find affordable places to
live.
Van Nostran believes all
of these groups could be
served by the kind of hous-
ing project church congre-
gants and the advisory com-
mittee envision.