Vancouver council expedites 2010 Olympic rentals
By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun, April 9, 2009
Vancouver city council decided Thursday to make it easier for homeowners to rent rooms during the Olympics.
But council also backdated by several months restrictions that would discourage landlords from evicting their regular renters to profit from short-term Olympic rentals.
The changes are expected to loosen what has become an extremely tight market for Games-time accommodation while at the same time protecting existing renters.
As an added incentive to get homeowners to properly license their Olympic rentals, the city dropped a plan to charge each landlord a $150 fee.
The city scaled the fee back to $106, the same amount it now charges homeowners and landlords who rent rooms for more than 30 consecutive days.
The proposals come as the city wrestles with a virtually non-existent housing rental market. It wants to avoid a repeat of the evictions that took place before Expo 86, when many people were thrown out of their homes as landlords sought to profit from the world fair.
