The city of Portland has failed to effectively police illegal Airbnb listings in the year since The Oregonian/OregonLive exposed the scale of the problem, and some of the leading contenders to become mayor have dodged questions to explain what they’ll do to ensure better compliance if elected.
Last September, the newsroom found that amid an ongoing housing crisis, Portland’s much-hyped effort to regulate short-term rentals had devolved into chaos. Unlicensed rentals proliferated. Unprocessed permitting paperwork swamped regulators, whose enforcement program was understaffed and lax. And the city was yet again at loggerheads over what data needed to be shared by Airbnb, the online rental giant that dominates the business.
In March, after scrapping a data sharing agreement with Airbnb and launching a new online portal to automate permitting and renewals, city leaders vowed once again to bring Airbnb to heel.
That hasn’t happened.
City officials say Airbnb still isn’t complying…
