Short-term rentals have helped create a lack of affordable housing in northern Arizona.
It is one reason why local leaders are calling on state lawmakers to allow cities and towns to limit the number of such units.
Williams Mayor Don Dent says the city has lost about 15% of its 1,500 housing units to short term rentals in the last 5 years.
He says he wants to cap that number at 10%, but state law prevents municipalities from addressing the issue.
“Those short-term rentals are taking properties that used to be workforce housing, long-term rentals that people lived in, their families lived in. They were there for teachers, firefighters. Any of your, what we call, essential workers," Dent says.
Earlier this year, the Williams City Council joined Sedona, Prescott, Jerome, Flagstaff, and Cottonwood, in asking the legislature to change that law.
The prevalence of short-term rentals has had an especially significant impact on what are known as Section 8 vouchers, which provide rental assistance to low-income residents.
Williams once administered 50 of them but most landlords who accepted the vouchers can bring in more income by renting to visitors.
The city now has just 17 voucher-supported units.
“I have a lady right now that contacts me almost weekly, who was moved out of a Section 8 home by the landlord. That home has been turned into a short-term rental. She has four children. She still qualifies for a voucher, but she can't find a landlord in our area to use that voucher," Dent says.
State legislators say allowing cities to regulate short-term rentals would impede the rights of property owners.
