January's City Council hearing on illegal hotels made it clear that New York officials want more oversight to crackdown on illegal short term rentals. Now the Post reports that the Council's Progressive Caucus is proposing a $2 million spending plan for the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement (the city department charged with tackling illegal hotels. The proposal would triple the size of the task force, adding an additional 25 people to allow the group to take a more active, rather than reactive, approach to seeking out illegal hotels and rentals on sites like Airbnb. The plan calls for three new investigative teams, with experts pulled from the Buildings Department and FDNY, as well as a "certified database administrator," a.k.a a professional Airbnb troll who will look for fishy listings on Airbnb and similar sites.
· Lawmakers Want to Triple Task Force for Airbnb Crackdown [NYP]
· City Council Really Hates Airbnb, Wants More Oversight [Curbed]
· All Airbnb coverage [Curbed]
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