With recent changes to short-term rental regulations, a local motel currently providing long-term rentals at below market-value rates is applying to rezone their property to tourist commercial in order to capitalize on demand that has been redirected from "AirBnB's" to commercial accommodators.
As a known tourist destination with 10% of the City's workforce employed in the tourism and hospitality industry, the City of Penticton applied for but was denied an exemption to the new regulations, and was also denied recognition as a resort community.
Given that the changes made by the provincial government have resulted in the market shifting demand back to hotels and other short-term stay commercial operators, we believe that the responsibility to create and provide alternative housing solutions those tenants at risk of being displaced should also lie with the province, and ask the Ministry of Housing to provide the resources for its Crown Corporation B.C. Housing to act upon our advocacy requests in order to support development in our community while also protecting those who are vulnerable to displacement resulting from the provincial government's regulatory changes to short-term rentals.
As a stopgap measure, the Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce has specifically asked B.C. Housing to provide rental supplements until such time as more affordable housing becomes available, and has requested that phase one of B.C. Housing's Skaha Assembly Redevelopment project's timetable be expedited by one year.
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Development, establishment, amendment or termination of any program, policy, directive or guideline of the government of British Columbia or a Provincial entity
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Economic Development and Trade, Housing, Poverty, Tourism
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