John Pen La Farge’s Aug. 12 My View, “Absentee owners problem for ordinance,” expresses an irrational fear and dislike of visitors, the very people who support 40 percent of Santa Fe’s economy.
Has anybody in this city been robbed or assaulted by short-term renters? Are people who rent or stay in hotels not wandering about on foot and in their car? How many residents in neighborhoods with short-term rentals work in tourist-related businesses? Santa Fe is a city with a long history, a large art sector, the seat of the state, county and city government.
It has little danger of morphing into a town with “no there there,” a vista of endless absentee rental condos.
The short-term rental business is made up of two groups, absentee owners who occupy their homes occasionally and rent them through an agency, and locals who run small businesses to supplement their incomes. Rental agencies make money by charging fees for maintenance and a percentage of rentals. They have large inventories of second homes that sit vacant a great deal. We know. We tried two of them before going on our own. These agencies will survive while local owners will be driven out of the business.
If a law is not enforced there is usually a reason — it is an impractical or bad law, and if the new ordinance currently under consideration by the City Council passes, Santa Fe will see a glut of homes for sale and rent, further depressing our real estate market. Local owners cannot afford a $1,000 fee when a business license costs $35. We cannot afford to pay utilities 52 weeks a year on 17 weeks of income, especially when the market is for three-to-four day stays. These houses will sit dark and empty.
We are locals, business owners, good citizens. We vote and volunteer at local schools and other community entities. We spend the income from our rental locally. We pay taxes, including gross-receipts tax. We tried to pay lodgers tax, and get a business license, but were told by a city official that we were exempt. No one in city government told us it was illegal to run a short-term rental.
Short-term renters provide a service to those who want to experience Santa Fe, not as “wandering strangers,” but as part of a neighborhood and who cannot afford hotel rooms for their families, reunions, weddings etc. These people behave, love Santa Fe, and spend their money here in our restaurants, museums, shops, ski slopes and the opera. They buy from local artists. Many come every year. We hope they will be able to continue enjoying Santa Fe, and that we can continue supporting the tax base of this community.
Carlos Duno owns Marcia Owens Associates, a staffing business, and is the president of The Santa Fe Botanical Garden. Retired librarian Barbara Duno is well-known gardener.
