The Inglewood city council recently enacted an ordinance regulating short-term rentals in the City but failed to tell owners that those with accessory dwelling units (ADU) were not eligible to obtain a home-sharing permit.
In fact, residents weren’t told until AFTER paying thousands in transient occupancy taxes (TOT).
***Urgent PSA for Inglewood California
Hello I’m Leonard Redway and I normally don’t post many Videos like this but today I have to because my community is facing a very urgent issue. I am a part of a group of Inglewood Residents, some investors, and some Inglewood residents who are investors as well like myself who use the Airbnb / platform to generate income. The group that is most affected are those who participate in what some cities describe as Home Share. This is the group that rents rooms or other spaces in their home or on the property that they live on. The city of Inglewood has set a date of Nov 1st for those using the platform to register and pay back taxes called TOT. The rate is 15.5% and they are being charged from January 2022 to current although ordinance 22-15 did not take effect till July 19th. And while they do allow a payment plan 6 months is not enough time for many of these who are literally living check to check.
I had the privilege meet and talk to many individuals about why they are against the current STR policies and the detrimental effects. Yesterday I was brought to tears as I spoke to Mr. Spencer a 72 yr old retired LACo Firefighter who moved to Inglewood in the mid 1980’s. Mr Spencer on a fixed income found he and his wife struggling as the cost of living has increased. They decided to take a 180k equity loan out on their property to build an ADU to generate additional income. Upon completion the Spencer’s spent a little over 200k on the project. Being only 1.9miles from sofi and the forum the Spencer’s used the Airbnb platform and within the 1st month they generated
$2,200 which was a enough to pay the upkeep, utilities and equity loan with a little left over. Life was good finally. Until they received notice that without registration they would be cut off the platform. Mr Spencer made an appt to register his unit. He paid $150 to do so Then was told about the TOT. The 15.5% took his cost over
$3,200. He reluctantly paid it saying he would raise the cost of the unit to make it back. After Mr Spencer paid he was told they just needed to verify his unit with Building and Safety.
Upon completion of the phone call Mr Spencer was told that he, his contractor or Architect had signed a document preventing him from Airbnb his ADU.
The city Rep told him she was sorry and there was nothing else that could be done. The Spencer’s have NO idea how they will pay the bills after November 1st. And he was not refunded his TOT monies he paid
Mr Spencer cried which thus brought me to tears. I promised I would do whatever it takes to make sure his unit was rented and he could pay his bills. I am quite sure more stories like this exist. I implore or Mayor and council to Listen to the community listen to their needs, not in 1 minute intervals at a city council meeting over the phone but convene a committee of city officials, community stakeholders and the city attorney who can work on an acceptable ordinance that benefits the needs of the many vs the needs of the few.
Until such a time that this can happen we call on the mayor to STAY this Nov 1st deadline and allow these groups to still operate.
We need to take in to consideration that the current STR tax is the same that the hotels pay yet the current STR limits the time that they can host. This needs to be fixed.
Please share this re post it tag whomever you can to get this message out as the Nov 1st deadline is fast approaching and sòoo many like Mr Spencer will be detrimentally affected.
Leonard Redway
2UrbanGirls has reached out to Housing Protection Director Yakema Decatur for clarification but she has not responded as of this article being published.
