Why this matters
How to fix San Diego’s housing shortage is a problem that has dogged city leaders for years.
Around this time last year, Kathleen Cuizon was scrolling through San Diego listings on Airbnb. But she wasn’t looking to schedule her next vacation getaway. She was looking for her old apartment.
“And sure as shit, there it is,” she said.
Cuizon said she had just been forced to leave her North Park apartment. The eviction notice said the property’s new owners intended to make it their primary residence. At least that’s what she was told.
It’s called a no-fault eviction and it’s legal under state and local law — as long as they move in within 90 days and live there for at least a year. But within 90 days of her move-out date, records show San Diego officials granted the new owners a license to turn the unit into a full-time vacation rental.
“I figured, bare minimum, (the owners) would have their licenses revoked,” she said. “You can’t just evict people to make it an Airbnb.”
Cuizon’s situation reveals a glaring loophole in San Diego’s short-term rental ordinance, which the National League of Cities has hailed as one of the best examples of vacation rental regulation in the country. Since the ordinance fails to mention no-fault evictions, officials had no lawful reason to revoke the license — or even prevent the new owners from obtaining one in the first place. One official told inewsource they are working to close the loophole.
Even so, this situation highlights the challenges facing city officials in communities that are languishing through a housing crisis while enjoying a booming short-term rental market, and how local residents are often caught in the middle.
When Cuizon saw her old apartment listed on Airbnb, she said she started calling anyone she could think of to raise the alarms.
First, she tried the police, but quickly learned this is a civil matter. She talked to an attorney, but she couldn’t afford the $5,000 necessary to take the case. She called San Diego’s code enforcement department, which is responsible for enforcing the city’s short-term rental ordinance. But because the way the law is written, there was nothing for code enforcement to enforce.
More than a year has passed and her unit is still listed on Airbnb, earning near 5-star praise on its convenience and comfort for “short or extended stays.”
Only after contacting inewsource — unsure of where else to turn — did Cuizon learn the San Diego City Attorney’s Office has a housing protection unit to review these situations. While a spokesperson for the office would not confirm an ongoing investigation, Cuizon said she spoke with an investigator who is looking into it.
The property owners declined to comment on the record for this story.
Have you been evicted only to find your apartment on Airbnb?
The San Diego City Attorney’s Office is asking residents who have experienced this to file a complaint with its housing protection unit. Click here for more information.
Cuizon has since moved to Spring Valley, where she lives with her two German Shepherds, 9-year-old Ruby and 5-year-old Daisy. Despite all that’s happened, Cuizon said she still considers herself lucky.
“I must have spent over $1,500 just in application fees,” said Cuizon, who has worked as a personal assistant. “I just worry about other people who don’t have the resources that I did at the time.”
Councilmember Jennifer Campbell — who represents Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Mission Beach — led the charge in 2023 to regulate San Diego’s short-term rental industry. Her chief of staff, Venus Molina, said they are aware of the loophole and working on several amendments to the short-term rental ordinance that would close it.
Notice to vacate
It all started with Cuizon’s eviction notice in June 2024, giving her 60 days to vacate.
She hired an attorney to fight the eviction, dipping into her savings to cover the upfront costs. Her neighbors in the same building received the same notice and moved out not long after — and once they did, Cuizon said, the new owners were quick to renovate and rent out the units short term.
That’s when she first started reaching out to the city to complain. Records show the property has received at least five complaints about short-term rental violations, and all have since been closed. All five are from Cuizon.
What is a no-fault eviction?
It provides property owners an opportunity to exit the rental market under specific circumstances, such as owner move-in, demolish or substantial remodel, or compliance with a government or court order that requires a tenant to leave. But each reason for an eviction carries its own requirement. Click here for more information.
Her first complaint came in October 2024, when she notified the city that the new owners were evicting tenants only to immediately turn the vacant units into short-term rentals.
Records show the new owners did not obtain their first short-term rental license until last February, months after the city started fielding complaints. By the time Cuizon found out her old apartment was listed on Airbnb, after apartment application fees and moving costs, she didn’t have any more money to spend on an attorney. She worries she isn’t the only one this has happened to.
“There is absolutely no accountability,” she said.
Short-term vacation rentals, and their impact on the housing market, have been a sore subject in San Diego.
Officials have for years grappled with two competing realities: a worsening housing and affordability crisis coupled with the business interests of property owners in a world-class destination city.
A proposed ballot measure to tax second homes and vacation rentals was recently torpedoed after hours of heated public debate — fueled at least in part by paid protesters from Los Angeles who were bused into town to oppose the measure, according to reporting by Voice of San Diego.
This is all unfolding at a time when San Diego, like many other cities across the state, is languishing through a housing shortage that experts say is driven largely by underproduction. San Diego continues to fall short of new housing construction for all income levels, and half of the city’s current housing supply consists of rental units that are nearly full, which keeps rents high.
It’s nearly impossible to find out how many people have experienced this — evicted from their home only to find it being rented short-term. Eviction records are protected by state law, and the only information available right now is the number of court filings.
The San Diego City Attorney’s Office formed a housing protection unit to ensure safe, fair and livable housing, as well as to investigate unfair business practices and repeated violations of tenant protections. A spokesperson said the office has received complaints of this happening but could not say how often — they are looking to keep track.
Gil Vera, a director with the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, said he is seeing property owners shift their business model from long term to short term. The nonprofit law firm provides lower-income residents with free legal services, including on housing issues.
“From a business standpoint,” he said, “you have less obligation and your occupants don’t have the same rights as tenants.”
Vera said it’s unrealistic to expect city officials to know in advance that a short-term rental license they are about to grant is for a unit that just illegally evicted its tenants. It would take a data collection effort to better understand when, where and why evictions were happening.
City officials were working on a plan to do just that in 2023 — it was known as the eviction notice registry. The idea was if they could collect anonymous data on eviction notices sent to renters, it could help guide policy and allocate limited resources. But the idea stalled not long after it began and it’s unclear whether officials will bring it back.
“This is just one of the many ways that this data that’s not being collected through the eviction notice registry could be very helpful for the city,” Vera said. “Enforcement and also just having information to inform their housing policy and budgetary decisions. It’s really valuable information on various fronts that’s not being collected.”
Type of Content
Investigative/Enterprise: In-depth examination of a single subject requiring extensive research and resources.