Affordable Housing is not a luxury, and without it, Door County is heading towards having little to no workforce.

This petition is in support of either instituting a special tax on Air BnB properties in Door County - OR- using the currently collected Air BnB taxes, and use that revenue specifically and only to support low income and affordable housing for working, year-round residents and families, due to the reality that Air BnB is the reason all the Affordable Housing options in Door County, Wisconsin are becoming vacation rentals lately. 

Alternately or in addition, this petition would consider supporting an end or some kind of limit to Air BnB property rentals in Door County, WI unless the owner physically lives in their own property at least (4-6) months out of the year, and limit to one Air BnB property in Door County per part-time resident.

As a tourism driven economy, our county must also realize that Air BnB is hurting our hospitality industry, we argue about building more hotels and condos because the ones we have are already struggling to fill rooms. Meanwhile there is nowhere for our local workforce to live because, and especially due to the pandemic, visitors want more and more remote and private rentals. Sooner or later there will be no workforce here. Only the retirees who can afford to be here and visitors who won't have any restaurants or shops to go to because no-one who works here can find find year round affordable housing.  

As landlords, it doesn't help for these owners to rent out their Air BnB long term in winter only to force residents to move every May to find temporary Summer Housing. This is hard enough for an individual worker, consider the stress that puts on a family. 

Yes, there are lots of apartments, not many available and not many affordable - and it isn't fair for families to have to pay the equivalent of a mortgage payment in rent each month just to stay in an apartment and have no yard for their kids, just because the home they wanted to finance was outbid on by someone who will never live there, and will rent it out for up to thousands of dollars per week. 

Until we are prepared to increase our minimum wage to a real living wage, a specific tax and limitations on Air BnB properties in order to fund and make affordable housing available, is a step forward in protecting Door County's economy and our workforce.