This is madness — now Sedona is paying short-term rental owners a bonus to rent long-term to locals. Why, because STRs have taken up so much of the local housing stock that it is unaffordable to ordinary residents.

Sedona has budgeted $240,000 in this plan to maintain some local population, and $240,000, probably exceeds the amount of transaction privilege tax Sedona receives from short-term rentals.

Clearly, this is just more evidence that unlimited short-term rentals are proving to be a disastrous housing policy. This is evidence that Senate Bill 1168 did not go far enough to protect Arizona residents. SB1168 is a beginning since it allows registration of short-term rentals with some limited enforcement provisions. However, SB1168 still prohibits limiting or restricting short-term rentals and requires them to be treated the same as ordinary residential housing.

This madness could have been avoided if Sedona had been able to limit or restrict short-term rentals from taking over so much of the housing stock and making it unaffordable to ordinary residents.

Many other localities are facing or soon will face the same choice as Sedona, no affordable housing for ordinary residents and local workers. Downtown Scottsdale has almost no affordable housing for ordinary residents and local workforce. Jerome reports almost no affordable housing for public officials.

In the next session, how do we get some legislation that would help reign in this madness by allowing cities and towns to limit or restrict short-term rentals? How do we get more housing policy legislation that is good for ordinary residents and not for investors?