The City of Victoria is facing a housing crisis; affordability, availability and livability are being compromised when residential properties are being transformed into a commercial commodity as short-term vacation rentals. Victoria City Council currently supports the commercialization of residential property and City staff will issue a commercial 'transient accommodation' business license to prop
erty owners that want to operate short-term vacation rentals. City Council would rather protect the financial interest of real-estate speculators, developers and those that operate in the 'grey economy' rather than take the necessary action to remove 'transient accommodation' as a permitted use and help return more than 300 short-term vacation rentals in the downtown core to the long-term housing market. The Citizen Coalition Against Short-Term Vacation Rentals opposes the commercialization of residential property and we call on Victoria City Council to take action to stop the commercialization of residential properties and improve housing livability, availability and affordability through a city initiated 'right-zoning' of downtown residential properties by removing "transient accommodation" as a permitted use in residential properties, and return those dwelling units back into the local housing supply.
