Protect Our Communities is a nonpartisan coalition of organizations, businesses, local leaders, and constituents with the objective of limiting the number of Short-term Rentals in Arizona.
We are united in this campaign with the following partners:
Arizona Neighborhood Alliance
Homes Not Hotels
Neighbors Not Nightmares
Neighborhoods Connect
Save Our Sedona
Our Goal is to persuade the Arizona Legislature to pass a bill(s) giving local control to cities and towns to limit the percentage of homes allowed to operate as Short-term Rentals (STRs).
STRs have had a devastating effect on many towns and cities in recent years. Thousands of homes have been turned into businesses. This has caused housing prices and rental prices to go through the roof. Long-term renters have been evicted because their rented home is going to be converted to an STR. They cannot find affordable housing, so they have to quit their job and move away.
Many businesses are struggling to find new employees, impacting hotels, restaurants, and stores. Community services are also affected, including fire departments, city offices, post offices, and schools.
Protect Our Community’s mission is to restore local control of STRs in order to undo the damage to neighborhoods and mitigate the housing shortage that impacts the workforce of our businesses.
In 2016, Gov Ducey signed the bi-partisan bill SB1350 into law. The bill was promoted as a way for “Mom & Pop to rent out a room in their home to make a little extra money”. The reality has been a proliferation of STRs upending communities and businesses.
There are now about 12,000 units in Phoenix and 70,000 STR statewide. Short-term rentals are a significant chunk of our longer-term housing shortage.
Short-term rentals are heavily owned by out-of-state corporations.
That is how we got here and why it needs to change.