Orlando E. Delogu (Maine Voices, Aug. 27) suggests – as summed up in the copy editor’s headline and subheadline – that short-term rentals are “the root cause of Portland’s housing dilemma,” “antithetical to the long-term interests of the city” and “unfair to residential homeowners.” Unfortunately, he’s painting a picture of all short-term rentals with the same brush, and there are some very important differences that he ignores.

Houses or rental units that investors snap up to market through Airbnb or other such sites have just the negative effects that Delogu describes, and do need to be controlled or eliminated. This has become a problem almost everywhere.

But the dominant short-term rental situation on Peaks and other Casco Bay islands is quite different. It’s either a house with some extra rooms that are rented for short periods during the warm months while the owners are still living in the house, or a house rented for a weekend or a week by a family who owns and lives in that property most of the year, or for a seasonal house, for part of the season.

Often the tenants are families who return year after year and regard their temporary island homes as a special community. Weekend tenants are often coming for island weddings or family reunions. The few island hotel or inn-style accommodations can handle only a tiny fraction of this population.

Taxes and other costs of living on Peaks Island have skyrocketed. Many islanders count on these short-term rentals to help pay their taxes, heating bills, parking fees and other island costs. In these cases, the short-term rental arrangements often enable families to hold on to their island homes, and thus help maintain stable island communities.

Airbnb.com may be a new way to market these rentals, but the practice of island short-term rentals goes back centuries, and serves our communities very well indeed. It should not be stopped.

Arthur Fink

Peaks Island

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