One year after Chicago implemented a new tax to homesharing services like Airbnb to fund services for the city's homeless population, Airbnb says it has already generated millions in new tax revenue.
Airbnb announced Thursday that it has collected and remitted over $2.8 million in tax revenue since the Chicago City Council approved the Shared Housing Ordinance last June. The ordinance, among other things, called for a 4% tax on each home rental to fund services for homeless people in Chicago. Airbnb began collecting the tax last July.
Airbnb says the $2.8 million is in an addition to the Chicago and Illinois hotel/lodging taxes that the homesharing startup has collected since January 2016.
"An important part of healthy travel is to make sure we are partnering with cities to infuse local benefits by democratizing the revenue, including generating tax dollars for critical priorities," Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s Head of Global Policy, said in a statement. "That’s why we are thrilled to announce today that the Chicago ordinance, which is a global home sharing model, has generated $2.8 million and counting to support this worthy cause."
The 2016 Chicago homesharing rules also allow certain areas of Chicago to ban homesharing all together, limit the number of units in buildings that can be rented, and require hosts to register with the city, which are rules that some Airbnb hosts have objected to in a lawsuit filed last year.
With the new homesharing tax revenue, earlier this year Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a program to bring permanent housing to 100 Chicago families in at-risk communities.
Since Chicago implemented the tax---the first such city to do so---other cities like New Orleans and Los Angeles have worked with Airbnb to allocate tax revenue to fund affordable housing programs.
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