Markham residents fume over Airbnbs; council votes in May

'They're like hotels:' resident

Yorkregion.com
April 10, 2018
Tim Kelly

Residents fed up with Airbnb rentals in Markham residential neighbourhoods let councillors know just how they felt recently.

“Our kids have been woken up at midnight by people that are boisterous, yelling, screaming, probably intoxicated,” said one woman who said she lives near a home frequently rented out for overnight stays.

Things came to a head for residents of Pinebrook Hollow recently when they say a school bus pulled up and 15 to 20 young men got out to stay in a home for several days on the cul de sac.

Neighbour Jim Bilkas, who lives on Pinebrook Hollow, was livid at what happened next.

He said the school bus blocked access to his driveway and when he came home at 11 p.m., people were on his driveway believing his house was the Airbnb rental. He didn’t buy his house more than 35 years ago, “to live next door to a hotel.”

“My concern is that these officials should just charge them and shut them down and go to court, but they don’t want to do anything,” Bilkas said.

“It’s (Airbnb) unacceptable as far as I’m concerned,” he added.

Bilkas believes action needs to be taken as soon as possible to deal with Airbnbs, which he believes are in direct conflict with the longtime residents living in Markham neighbourhoods.

“They have to realize they are a commercial use. They’re like hotels and this area is zoned residential,” Bilkas said.

“If a person comes in on a daily basis and rents a room and a house is subdivided into rooms, what is it?” he said.

Ward 4 Coun. Karen Rea said she, too, has concerns about the issue and thinks action is needed to contain the Airbnbs.

“It would be like I never know who I’m going to come home to; it’s like a different set of neighbours every time you come home, like your neighbour operating their home as a hotel, it’s a security issue,” she said.

“I have several party houses in my neighbourhood, they’re out drinking, they’re out partying, they leave the garbage out all week.”

She said in her ward, Ward 4, there are at least four Airbnbs in operation regularly.

Rea said, last year, 12 to 14 young men were at an Airbnb “drinking up a storm."

How to deal with it is what city staff and politicians are now faced with.

Rea said, “We’re being told by city staff that we need to define what short-term accommodation is and what a rooming house is as well,” in coming to grips with Airbnbs and the wider problem of short-term rentals and rooming houses.

“We have to allow or not to allow, or to allow and have licencing,” she stated.

The Airbnb issue is due to come up again at Markham’s development services committee with a recommendation from staff on April 30. It is then due to come before council for a vote on May 15.