Shame On Councilman Chris Ward

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Appendix

In the end, Councilmember Chris Ward supported Barbara Bry and Lorie Zapf's efforts to defend San Diego neighborhoods.

Again, Welcome Back Chris!

Welcome Back

Chris!

Ward Said He Would Help District 3 Voters

"For far too many San Diegans right now, buying a home or affording rent is completely out of reach. If we aren't focused on that as local leaders, we're wasting our time on everything else."

- Chris Ward

HIS BETRAYAL

Then, He Proposed Unlimited Vacation Rentals in District 3

"Chris Ward's proposal is an open invitation to investors to buy unlimited homes in District 3, force out residents and convert them into short-term vacation rentals for tourists."

- John Thickstun, Esq.

HIS EXCUSES

Couples with two homes should be able to rent the second to short-term renters instead of having to rent to long-term residents in District 3.

This encourages evictions of long-term renters. Short-term vacation renters pay 3x more than long-term renters.

Even though short-term rentals are currently illegal, we cannot afford to enforce the law.

This is not true. Code enforcement fined a single operator over $100,000 for their illegal short-term rental. A few more of these would pay for a lot of enforcement of current laws. His proposed fines are much less.

We can help the housing crisis by collecting a $5 per night fee on short-term rentals.

This is not true. At $5 per night, it would take over 250 years to replace the living space lost today to each short-term rental.

San Diego code enforcement cannot stop short-term rentals.

Code enforcement in Coronado has an 85% success rate that continues to increase.

The California Coastal Commission won't let us enforce our current laws that state that short-term vacation rentals are illegal.

This is a very dangerous misrepresentation. The Coastal Commission cannot stop San Diego from enforcing its existing laws according to the California Court of Appeals in February of this year. However, if Ward's law passes, the Coastal Commission can block San Diego from rolling it back in the future. To be clear, Ward's plan will likely cause irreversible damage to San Diego.

HIS FUNDERS

The corporations and people responsible for illegally converting over 3,000 homes in District 3 into short-term vacation rentals poured thousands into Ward's election campaign AFTER he won in order to protect their second most profitable area. Since then, he has been aggressively promoting a plan to legalize them instead of enforcing laws designed to protect his voters.

Based on Ward's actions, his funders got a bargain and we are going to suffer for it.

WHY WARD'S BETRAYAL IS SO DAMAGING

It is simple:

- Residents need housing to survive.

- Businesses need residents to employ and serve.

- Schools need residents to teach.

- Places of worship need resident members.

- Youth sporting teams need resident players.

- Our climate needs residents with short commutes.

- Community groups need residents to thrive.

By advocating for the conversion of District 3 residential housing to accommodations for tourists, Ward is working against everything important to us, his voters.

Ward, himself, declared that if he wasn't focused on housing affordability, he was wasting his time on everything else. We deserve a Councilmember that will not abandon his #1 priority for a few pieces of silver.

IT GETS WORSE! District 3 short-term rentals are multiplying by 73% per year. This means that we will lose another 2,400 homes in the next year if Ward isn't stopped! Don't let us turn into the next Mission Beach.

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Last, a little about me and my motivation.

My name is Andy and I am a father, teacher, little league coach and concerned District 3 resident. Over the past three years, I’ve seen the damage done by illegal vacation rentals first hand and I’ve acted. I’ve reached out to Councilman Chris Ward’s office many times. I discussed vacation rentals with him at community meetings from University Heights to Little Italy. I thought I could get through to Ward with facts from objective sources since he ran as the guy that cares about housing.

Unfortunately, the power of campaign donations from vacation rental operators proved enough to buy his allegiance. At City Council meetings and behind closed doors, Ward is working very hard to rezone every home in District 3 so investors can legally convert them into full-time hotels for tourists.

Ward needs to choose us over illegal hotel operators if he wants to represent District 3 going forward.

Rental data:

Airdna.co - This link is for Hillcrest but you can click around on the map to see your neighborhood and the annual growth rate. NOTE: There are over 30 short-term rental sites operating in San Diego. Airdna.co shows information for Airbnb only (the biggest site). The actual number of rentals is roughly twice as many as shown.
TomSlee.net - Tom provides raw data for analysis on his website for Airbnb short-term rentals.
Host Compliance - You can download their entire San Diego report using this link.

Quotes and content:

Chris Ward's Proposal - Download it here.
San Diego Unified School District Board of Directors Unanimous Declaration - Download it here.
Chris Ward Top Priority Quote - View it here.
Campaign Funding - Funds received after Chris was elected can be downloaded here. Note: Thousands were from short-term rental operators and lobbyists (and their spouses).