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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-03-27 PL-CCI-2024-000003 Bill 121 Claudia Merrill Testimony From: Claudia Merrill To: WPCtestimonv Subject: Bill121 Date: Wednesday, March 27,2024 1:13:04 PM Aloha, I am writing regarding the newly proposed Bill 121 in regards to homeowner hosted short term rentals. I would very much like to see homeowners that rent a room in their home to make ends meet, exempt from the proposed ruling and to separate residents from investment property owners from off island. My husband and I are kapuna and live in a beach community neighborhood on the west side of the Big Island that has several homeowner hosted rentals. It is a quiet neighborhood and there has never been an issue with large parties, noise and parking that both Oahu and Maui seem to have problems with. We ourselves purchased our home 32 years ago and have needed to rent a room to make ends meet. We first tried long term renters in our studio that is a portion of the downstairs of our home. We ended up having to evict both a drug dealer who had guests coming and going at all times day and night, and then a single person with anger issues who yelled and slammed doors and cupboards day and/or night. After two very bad experiences we decided to try shorter term rentals, as our home is our sanctuary and should not be subject to adverse living conditions. It is important to us to have our privacy and enjoy our home. Guests that come for a short stay are off to see the island, have activities planned, and do not spend much time at our house. If we are no longer able to rent a room in our home, we will NOT rent long term again and it would be a great hardship on our finances to continue to live in our home. We love living in our neighborhood, and would love to be able to continue to do so, without the exorbitant regulations that are proposed in this bill overseeing us. We are a retired couple, ran a business in Kona for over 20 years before retiring, and we cannot live comfortably in Hawaii with the cost of living expenses on only our social security income. We are always at home to meet and greet our guests, have a maximum of 2 people, (mostly couples traveling) , have many repeat guests as they love our studio , and have a parking space specifically for our rental. The type of traveller that stays in the type of vacation rental that we offer, would not be coming to Kona if they had to stay in a hotel room that was $500. or more a night. These are budget travelers, that find lower cost lodging so they can experience activities, restaurants, renting a car and sight seeing, etc. They are not destination hotel tourists. We have always paid GE, TAT, taxes and now the county tax. We are in our 70's and do have the homeowners classification as we were told we would be grandfathered in and only non- resident STVR owners would be taxed as investment property. Now I'm hearing that if we rent at all, we will have to pay up to 11 % in property taxes, which would prohibit us from making ends meet. So my question is: who are you targeting here ? Why are tax paying long term residents being treated and classified the same as out of state property investment STVR 's? You could see by our taxes reported and paid, we are not making a lot of money, but just making ends meet and trying to stay in our home and live comfortably . Most of the homeowner hosted rentals in our neighborhood are trying to do the same, there are no large rentals with huge profits being made here. If this bill passes, we will not rent long term. We will not be able to rent short term if our homeowners exemption is taken away. It will be a hardship to lose the income we have had and we may end up having to sell our beloved home and move somewhere affordable. Oh.... That's what you are trying to avoid right? Making local residents not able to afford housing and having to move elsewhere? Why would our local political leaders want to treat kapuna that have worked and lived in Hawaii for the majority of their lives,paid their taxes and contributed to their communities, the same as non-resident investors? If you take away home owner exemptions, raise taxes, and make renting a room in our homes prohibitive, we will be forced to sell our homes and move. Who would be able to afford those homes in todays market? Not any local or retired people that I know. It would most likely be non-resident investment buyers, that would need to rent those homes at high rental rates, to cover mortgage/property/taxes/etc. that most local families could not afford. The new proposed regulations seem very short sighted and not very well thought through. Please consider exempting residents from this proposed bill. Not only would long time residents have to sell and move, all the people that benefited from low cost short term rentals would be hurt. Room cleaners, landscapers, local restaurants, grocery stores, activities, etc. For the most part, guests/travelers that stay in low cost rooms in private homes, would no longer come here, as they could not afford the high cost of hotel rooms. Mahalo for considering exempting homeowner residents that live on their property from this Bill 121.