The residents of the College Estates neighborhood in Long Beach have been able to ban short-term Airbnb rentals in the neighborhood after successfully filing a petition to the city’s community development department. 

The banning came as a result of several parties and a shooting in the Long Beach neighborhood. This ban focuses on stopping out-of-state residents who usually come to parties at Airbnb rentals. 

In April 2024, a petition was filed to the Community Development Department regarding damage caused by nonresident tourists who usually come to the neighborhood. 

A resident of the neighborhood who initiated the petition was Andy Oliver. Oliver is a resident of the College Estates neighborhood in Long Beach. Oliver was said to have seen a shooting victim outside his own house. 

According to Andy Oliver, the community has been experiencing some loud and violent activities lately. All these activities were spearheaded by strangers who come to the neighborhood rentals. 

Oliver described the neighborhood as peaceful and family-oriented. He spoke of how the once peaceful community has recently experienced strange activities that pose a threat to it. 

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Oliver also speaks about the shooting he experienced. While narrating his ordeal to CBS, he narrated how the shooting he witnessed personally affected him. 

He said a particular kid was chased across his lawn and was shot at his front porch. He further told CBS how difficult this is for residents of the neighborhood, knowing that their once peaceful community has now been violated with crimes. 

Given these threatening activities, Oliver started a petition which had in support of over 800 homes in the community. All of these homes signed and agreed to restrictions on short-term rentals. 

This petition also seeks the proper supervision of house rentals in the College Estates neighborhood. The rentals will be hosted on sites, and the owners have the choice of shutting down the rentals when their license expires. 

Not everyone seems happy with the new development over the Airbnb ban in the neighborhood, especially those whose livelihoods solely depended on it, 

A resident of the area, Jean Young, speaks about how his survival relies on the income from the rentals. Young said that most of his clients are referrals from his Neighbors. 

After the success of the petition initiated by Oliver in April 2024, an advocacy group called the Long Beach Safe Neighborhood Coalition was established. This group brings together residential neighborhoods in Long Beach to protect the residents of the area from any form of threat. 

According to Fox Digital News, the group speaks about how the group has found support in the past few months as people keep finding out about the website. Their motive is to protect residents from any form of unsupervised short-term rentals run by real estate agents and investors. 

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The success of the petition and the formation of the advocacy group has cut across the country as some states have started to show interest in how to battle and deal with the same problems in their neighborhoods. 

According to the Long Beach Safe Neighborhood Coalition, other states like North Carolina and Florida have started to show interest in how to deal with the same issue. They opined that the problem of unsupervised rentals is affecting communities everywhere and residents are ready to fight against it.

It seems the fight against unwanted guests is becoming a general thing in Long Beach as the South of Conant neighborhood is also working towards the same approach as the College Estates neighborhood. 

According to a resident of South of Conan, Christina Nigrelli, to Fox News Digital, speaks of being optimistic and hopes there will be a lot of support throughout the neighborhood. 

The fight against Airbnb crime didn’t just start this year; there was a study published in 2021 against Airbnb crime in neighborhoods. It explained how only a neighborhood can prevent any form of crime. 

Daniel O’Brien who is one of the writers opined that the problem with Airbnb is that it takes houses off social networks by impeding its natural capacity to manage crime. 

The study further gave insight into the effect of Airbnb rentals on crime rate in Neighborhoods. The writers of the study were able to identify how Airbnb listings have led to violence for years. 

According to the study, Airbnb listings have instigated robberies, fights, and reports of someone wielding a knife. All of these crime stories are gathered by comparison of 911 call data to Airbnb listings, dating from 2011 to 2018. 

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The study was able to point to the fact that this crime rate in communities is not immediately caused by nonresidents who come to the area through Airbnb listings but it’s like a process that occurs over the years. 

Babak Heydari, who is also one of the study writers, says that “another support that is changing the social fabric of the neighborhood is what’s undergirding these results.” This is to say that it’s not about the nonresidents bringing crimes to these communities but the gradual transformation of the communities themselves. 

The term “Airbnb” has been in existence for a long time; it refers to places where a listing is located. It is usually in neighborhoods where people reside, and it is a short outlet that is rented out for a short period. 

Airbnb listings accommodate visitors from other states in the United States and outside the United States. Airbnb might have some negative history but it’s also important to stress that the listing is occupied by families who are on vacation to a particular city or for young couples who wish to spend private time together outside of their cities, this is to say that it is also for positive purposes and not primarily to promote any form of crime activities. 

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