District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser refused Tuesday to sign short-term home rental legislation passed by city council, citing concerns about the constitutionality of the bill and possible lost revenue for the city, but stopped short of vetoing the legislation.

The Short-term Rental Regulation and Affordable Housing Protection Act of 2017, prohibits second or third home owners for using their properties as a short-term rental. The bill permits residents to utilize the platforms to rent rooms in their primary homes for short periods of time without restriction, if they are present at time of the rental. If the owner is not present, an annual 90-day limit will apply, unless the resident applies for a hardship exemption. An example of a hardship exemption is if employment or family requires someone to travel outside the DC region for long periods of time.

The bill was embroiled in an 18-month battle that weighed interests of the hospitality industry and affordable housing advocates with those who championed the democratization of the tourism industry. Some argue that home sharing platforms accelerate the affordable housing crisis by fostering short-term tourism, instead of long-term tenants. There are currently 9,000 rentals in DC on sites like Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway. Others say that these alternative source of income allow residents to earn extra needed income allowing them to stay in the city.

Home sharing controversies have been frequent in the past few years and the new industry begins to be regulated. In 2015 Airbnb started collecting and remitting the 14.5-percent hotel tax for every stay. Adversaries of the bill, like Bowser, cite the potential tremendous lost income from not being able to collect this tax. DC CFO Jeffrey DeWitt estimated that between 80 and 90 percent of current short-term rentals would be declared illegal and taken off the home-sharing platforms.

In terms of the constitutionality, a New York Federal Court determined this month that the data shared on these platforms being shared with the government as a violation of Fourth Amendment rights of illegal search and seizure of information.

If unchallenged, the DC bill will go into law in October 2019.