Santa Monica resident here. The local increases in rent around here have been astounding over the past 2 years and most of my friends who have had a life event

Santa Monica resident here. The local increases in rent around here have been astounding over the past 2 years and most of my friends who have had a life event causing them to have to change apartments have been completely priced out and forced to go to the Valley. I attribute much of this to AirBnB, having known a few people here that operate business models much like what is described in the article. We have the most expensive hotel rates in the state and vacation rentals are extracting a lot of profit from the market because of it. I know a girl who rented three 1-bedroom apartments around Santa Monica. She would live in whichever of the three was fetching the least interest on AirBnB that month and put the other two up. Those two units were occupied about 10-15 days a month. After all expenses she netted about $1000 cash and free rent for herself every month. In return there were two more units taken off the market and the price of actual residential units driven up ridiculously. L.A. Mayor Garcetti came to speak at our office last week and he said that there is one housing unit west of the 405 (demarcation of west L.A.) for every 4 jobs west of the 405. Turning so many housing units into short term rentals is making this far worse. I support Santa Monica's law even if it means that I cannot rent my apartment out while I am traveling this December. I don't want to live somewhere that only techies can afford.