Letter: Short-term rentals alter neighborhoods

In response to “B&Bs help owners, neighborhoods” (Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 2): I would refer the writer and your readers to “Visitor lodging hurts neighborhoods” (Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Aug. 15), by Chuck Prentiss, a retired urban planner and former executive secretary of the Honolulu Planning Commission.

Prentiss said, “More STRs (short-term rentals) will have a negative impact on our residential quality of life. These visitor lodging businesses change the character of neighborhoods by replacing local residents with nonresidents. … Nonresident visitors have little interest in public agencies, schools or the welfare of the citizenry. Literally they are here today and gone tomorrow … ”

As a 43-year owner and resident of a unit at Maili Cove, I can attest to the truth of these changes. We already are experiencing this. Long-term rentals are rarely advertised. New speculators know how much money can be made with STRs and are buying up units as soon as they go on sale.

Tenants come and go, using the facilities like a hotel with no regard for long-term residents. And residents of long-term rentals fear losing their units to landlords who see the financial potential.

June Medeiros

Waianae