Councilman Wilson discusses City Council’s response to the mass shooting in East Deutschtown on Easter weekend.

Photo: Office of Councilman Wilson

Hello everyone, 

This month, I wanted to discuss what we are doing at City Council in the aftermath of the mass shooting that occurred in East Deutschtown on Easter weekend and claimed the lives of Jaiden Brown and Mathew Steffy-Ross. There has been extensive news coverage of the details of this tragedy, and I urge you to consult the work of all the extraordinary journalists who have come together to help us understand what happened on that deadly Sunday. 

Before sharing what we are doing now at City Council to decrease the likelihood of another tragedy like this occurring in our city, I wanted to take a moment to remember the two teenagers who lost their lives that night: Jaiden Brown and Mathew Steffy-Ross. On Easter Sunday, these two children died, nine more were seriously wounded, and many more injured at this Airbnb party. Instead of celebrating the imminent end of the school year, with all the festivities that go with it, these families are now grieving for their losses. We grieve with them, because the death, pain, and trauma that resulted from this tragedy have robbed all of us of the bright futures that these children were going to have here in our city. As this column goes to print, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police are investigating this mass shooting. If you have any information that can assist with their investigation, I urge you to call Major Crimes at 412-323-7161. If you need mental health resources because of the trauma you experienced from this incident, please call the 24-hour Crisis Hotline at the Center for Victims at 1-866-644-2882. 

On the Monday after this mass shooting, I partnered with Council President Theresa Kail-Smith and Councilmember Deb Gross to introduce a bill to regulate short-term rentals, like those found on Airbnb. Unruly Airbnb parties that simmer at the level of neighborhood nuisances or explode into deadly violence are a problem nationwide right now. The first response by cities to this problem has been to impose regulations on the short-term rentals within their borders. My bill seeks to ensure that Pittsburgh owners of short-term rentals will register these properties with the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections (PLI) prior to operating them on platforms like Airbnb. Whether a property owner intends to offer either a whole unit or just a spare bedroom for short-term rental, that owner will be required to register that rental with PLI. The goal of having a registered property owner on file with PLI is to have a person who will pick up the phone if law enforcement needs to get in touch with them about a situation at their property. While guests at the short-term rental properties should enjoy everything our city has to offer, neighbors of these properties should not suffer disruptions to their safety or quality of life as a result.

I invite you to read the bill, but I also wanted to provide a brief description of how my bill in its current form seeks to regulate short-term rentals in Pittsburgh. To register such a property, the owner will apply and pay for a license from PLI. To obtain this license, the application must contain the address, block and lot number, number and type of short-term rental, the name and contact information of the property owner(s), the maximum number of permitted guests, and the designated number of occupants to be accommodated in all rooms and spaces. Our hope is that requiring the owners of short-term rental properties to register them with PLI and keep records of their renters will encourage responsible ownership and respectful stays. If PLI grants the owner of a short-term rental in Pittsburgh a license to operate, that license will be valid for one year and shall be renewed yearly, subject to an annual inspection by a PLI Officer. Additionally, to obtain this short-term rental license, the property owner must have resolved or appealed all outstanding PLI violation notice(s) at that property. In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on Land Use and Economic Development, which oversees PLI, I will work with the department to ensure that, if you are an owner of a short-term rental in the City of Pittsburgh, the process for registering your property will be streamlined.

At present, City Council is collecting public comments on this bill. I invite you to reach out to my office to share your thoughts, concerns, and suggestions on the provisions of this bill. I shall also motion to hold a public hearing at Council so that residents, neighbors, and property owners, both on the Northside and across the City, can come share their feedback on this bill with myself and my colleagues. I will publicize the date and time of this meeting on my office’s social media channels as soon as it is scheduled. Finally, I will organize a roundtable discussion with owners of short-term rental properties, especially in my Council District, to gather their input on this bill. Please feel free to call us at 412-255-2135, email us at district1@pittsburghpa.gov, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to hearing from you.

BOBBY WILSON 

COUNCILMAN, DISTRICT 1