Quinn still fights against B & Bs

Says condo in West Lawn in violation 

By Tim Hadac

While short-term rentals of homes or rooms within homes is a practice outlawed throughout the 13^th Ward, Ald. Marty Quinn recently identified one place where the practice continues, and he took action.

Police visited a condominium unit at 6201 S. Knox earlier this fall and issued a citation reporting that the unit’s owner, Salma Manaa, is in violation of 4-14-050(i) of the City Code (“It shall be unlawful for any shared housing host to advertise for rent, list on a platform, rent, or book for future rental, or to permit any person to advertise for rent, list on a platform, rent, or book for future rental, any shared housing unit that is located within a restricted residential zone”).

13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn

Fines for that violation range from $1,500 to $5,000 and can be reapplied for each day the housing unit is advertised.

Efforts to reach Salma Manaa for comment were not successful this week.

According to the police citation, Manaa is scheduled to answer the charge later this month before the Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings.

Quinn said the condo unit was listed on airbnb.com, not under Manaa’s name but under a “Super Host”—a person who offers rentals of other people’s properties on airbnb.

Background

More than any elected official in the city, Quinn has opposed short-term rentals of homes and even parts of homes.

“My constituents continue to voice their concerns with home-sharing services and the problems with Airbnb operating in the ward,” Quinn has said, mentioning by name the nation’s leading house rental company. “The 13^th Ward mainly consists of single-family homes, children, seniors and residents who don’t want to put up with the ‘quality of life’ issues that come with home-sharing services.”

“A house is not a hotel,” the alderman also has said. “A house is not a hall to be rented out for parties. A house is a home.”

In order to ban home-sharing services from a given ward, the process begins at the precinct level. A resident from the precinct must file a petition with the city clerk’s office asking to opt-out of home-sharing services. The petition requires signatures from 25% of all registered voters in the precinct within 90 days for the precinct to officially opt-out.

Media accounts in recent years have detailed a variety of complaints against Airbnb, including a deadly shooting at an Airbnb in California and tales of a nationwide scam of fake Airbnb hosts.

Quinn first led the charge to ban Airbnb practices from four precincts in the 13^th Ward in June 2017 after several instances of objectionable behavior by rental guests in the neighborhood.

Changes to Chicago’s Municipal Code made in 2016 allow most Chicagoans to rent their homes—or spaces within their homes. Proposed by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the changes “ensure that the city has the tools it needs to protect consumers and quality of life in our neighborhoods while allowing the emerging house-sharing industry to grow,” the mayor said in a statement then.

After months of legislative wrangling, the City Council approved the changes in 2016 ago in a 43-7 vote. Quinn and 18^th Ward Ald. Derrick Curtis were the only Southwest Side aldermen to vote against the changes.

Quinn said the recent situation at 62^nd and Knox underscores the importance of neighbors reporting violations of the ban on short-term rentals.

The more eyes and ears a neighborhood has on itself, the more secure it can be,” Quinn said. “We need people to report violations of the law as they become aware of them.”

Thirteenth Ward residents interested in more information or signing a petition are advised to call the Madigan-Quinn Service Office at (773) 581-8000.