An effort to raise additional money for affordable housing in St. Louis is on the ballot in November.
Proposition S would require people who stay in a short-term rental to pay an additional 3% per night. At least half of the revenue raised would go to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which helps cover the cost of building and maintaining affordable housing units in St. Louis. The remaining money would be directed toward expenses like relocation assistance or a program to provide attorneys for people facing eviction.
“As we’ve seen a proliferation of short-term rentals, we’ve also seen rents and mortgage rates also climb as a result of that,” said 4th Ward Alderman Bret Narayan, who shepherded the measure onto the November ballot. “This is kind of a drop in the bucket to try and offset some of that.”…