Outside a new apartment building in New Haven’s Wooster Square neighborhood, there is a long line of lockboxes.
“Just on my street alone, in the last two years, there have been three Airbnbs themselves,” said Ward 8 Alder Mandy Martinelli.
Last week, Martinelli talked with NBC Connecticut about an ordinance that would generally restrict short-term rentals to homeowner-occupied units. The goal is to encourage corporations to offer more long-term leases in a difficult housing market.
“One, we have a relatively short supply of housing, particularly for the newcomers into the labor market,” said James Thorson, an economics professor at Southern Connecticut State University.
Thorson said the vacancy rate for apartments nationwide is only about 3.5%.
“And so at that low vacancy rate, landlords aren’t in the mood to offer any deals to people to move into their places,” he explained.
According to Thorson, many of the people struggling to find housing are newer to the workforce, such as recent college graduates, along with people at the lower end of the wage scale.
Adding to the challenge are waitlists for affordable housing, while companies offer furnished short-term rentals.
NBC Connecticut found several of those listings in larger downtown apartment buildings, including apartments in five of the City Crossing buildings. One of those buildings was the site of a construction collapse in June 2023.
“Those are units that could be used for people that are residents in our city that want to live there for a longer period of time,” said New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker.
Elicker said he’s in favor of the ordinance, adding that it would ease pressure on the market and make more units available in newly built buildings.
“We want to make sure homeowners, if they have an extra room or extra apartment in their building, have the ability to rent,” Elicker said. “But at the same time, we’re in an affordability crisis right now, and housing affordability is something that’s affecting so many New Haven residents. We have a lot of new construction in the city. A lot of that’s affordable but a lot of that’s not.”
NBC Connecticut reached out to the parent company of City Crossing Apartments for comment and has not heard back.
