California residents successfully BAN Airbnbs in their quaint neighborhood after complaining about round-the-clock drug-fueled parties in rented homes where one person was shot

Outraged California residents successfully petitioned to ban short-term rentals in their neighborhood after reaching breaking point with partying neighbors.

Andy Oliver, 50, was forming a coalition to end unhosted rental housing in his Long Beach neighborhood when a shooting victim staying in a neighboring rental home crawled into his home on Jan. 2 looking for shelter.

He launched the Long Beach Neighborhood Coalition and began petitioning his census block group to limit unhosted short-term rentals in the College Estates portion of their neighborhood.

Members of the group spoke at a city council meeting in April, where officials voted to look at increasing restrictions on short-term rentals.

‘Imagine you buy your dream house and suddenly your neighbor turns his house into an Airbnb. You’re over a year of loud parties, marijuana smoke blowing through your vents, movie shootings, hourly rent, strangers coming in and out all the time and many other problems,” Oliver said.

“Then on a sunny Tuesday morning, while the kids are playing outside, a 21-year-old tenant targeted at this Airbnb is chased by a masked gunman and shot right in the middle of your porch.”

“The victim jumps your fence, trying to enter your home looking for protection, with his blood running all over your property. Your house is turned into a crime scene, you miss work, families are traumatized forever and then new tenants arrive that same night,” Oliver said.

Melissa Rakiey said tenants staying at her neighbor’s Airbnb often block her driveway and threaten residents.

“On March 16, short-term rental customers hosted a birthday party that escalated and led to Long Beach Police breaking up a party of 52 people in a three-bedroom home,” Rakiey said.

“The Airbnb brought a large group of gangsters to my neighborhood, flushed them into the streets with open containers, smoking weed and racing cars.”

On Friday, Oliver was notified that his petition had been accepted. According to the Long Beach Community Development Department, of the 735 petitions submitted, 375 were returned signed, meaning the petition passed with 51 percent support.

“I don’t have the final count, but there are about 755 houses and we just got enough signatures,” Oliver told the newspaper. Los Angeles Times.

“I heard it was close and I don’t have confirmation of the final vote, but I was informed [last week] that we succeeded.’

“There were two previous petition drives that failed, so I wasn’t sure we would be successful,” he said.

Now there are eight other census tract block groups with pending petitions to ban unhosted short-term rentals in Long Beach.

Airbnb rentals in the scenic College Estates neighborhood range from $179 to $433 per night.

Long Beach banned unhosted short-term rentals in 2020, but eased restrictions to allow people to use their second properties as Airbnbs.

According to the Community Development Department, there are 626 non-primary short-term rental properties registered in the city.

Jean Young, 67, is one of those short-term renters who told the LA Times that she understands the reaction to the shooting at Oliver’s home, but that she would be sad to lose the ability to make money on her rent.

“I’m a part-time writer, and the rental income smooths out the rough edges and is great,” she said.

“My son has since gone to college and my mother has passed away, so there’s all this space in my house to share. It would be sad to lose that ability.”