$10 million a year in unrealized revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe county tax collector\u2019s office began cracking down on unpaid transient occupancy taxes two years ago. County officials are still working to bring roughly 700 properties into compliance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been cheated out of revenue because the county isn\u2019t bothering to collect it or do anything to increase enforcement,\u201d Everett said. \u201cI\u2019m not seeing anything on the horizon that looks like change will happen anytime soon and I think it\u2019s tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Borrego Springs in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the long-term effects of unchecked short-term rentals have taken a heavy toll, particularly on full-time residents working essential jobs \u2014 such as teachers and firefighters.<\/p>\n
Home to around 3,000 full-time residents, the tourist town had 151 registered and 31 unregistered short-term rentals, as of April tax records. That number is challenged by officials of the local sponsor group, who argue hundreds of additional short-term rentals have not filed for business licenses.<\/p>\n
Annual records show the desert town has also seen a significant rise in short-term rentals in the last decade, according to tax records. In fiscal year 2015-2016, the county collected about $561,000 in transient occupancy taxes from Borrego Springs. By fiscal year 2025-2026, that number rose to about $800,000.<\/p>\n
Victoria Baay is the principal of both Borrego Springs High School and Borrego Springs Middle School. She started working for the school district over 11 years ago and spent her first two years commuting to Borrego Springs from the Escondido area. Her family eventually purchased a home and became full-time Borrego Springs residents nearly a decade ago, a reality she said is now all but impossible for other families.<\/p>\n
While a near-two-hour commute each way might shock outsiders, it has become a daily reality for many teachers and essential workers in town.<\/p>\n
Many teachers in Borrego Springs commute from such cities as San Marcos, El Centro and Calexico, Baay said. Others have opted to stay on their friend\u2019s couch during the week to avoid driving back and forth, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn one hand, short-term rentals are great for families as an extra source of income, but the struggle for renters is real,\u201d Baay said. \u201cWhen houses do go on the market, the majority of them were being turned into AirBnBs so our local families weren\u2019t having a shot at buying them.\u201d<\/p>\n
With many unable to afford housing on a teacher\u2019s salary, she said high turnover is an issue for their district.<\/p>\n
As families continue to move away from Borrego Springs due to the lack of available housing, Baay said enrollment at their preschool has dropped to just eight students. In the last five years, the town has changed from an affordable place for young families to buy homes to one they are being priced out of, she said.<\/p>\n
Gary Hayes lives in unincorporated El Cajon, about 100 yards from city limits. He said his longstanding dispute with a neighboring short-term rental is unique because his house is in \u201ca no-man\u2019s land,\u201d neither within city limits or a small town.<\/p>\n
His family shares an easement with a neighboring property that is operated as a short-term rental, primarily to host parties of 10 people or more.<\/p>\n
He recounted instances where guests of the rental got into fights on the driveway, which is shared between the two properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had my truck puked on and peed on, not by dogs, but by people,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cI\u2019ve had people stumbling around in their underwear at like two in the morning in the driveway.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he isn\u2019t against short-term rentals as a whole, Hayes said the county\u2019s lack of oversight in unincorporated areas has made it difficult to have complaints addressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re on the back burner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If a short-term rental property is in an unincorporated area, noise and disturbance complaints are directed to the San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy current San Diego county law, they\u2019re actually considered transient,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cAll the officers are going to do is ask them to quiet down, and as long as they don\u2019t find anything else while they\u2019re here, they\u2019re just going to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
A cap on occupancy is one solution Hayes proposed to ease disturbances. But he said accountability for short-term rental hosts is most important.<\/p>\n
Members of the Julian planning group proposed \u201creasonable limits\u201d on short-term rentals, including clear rules on occupancy, increased enforcement and \u201csomeone local who can respond quickly when there\u2019s an issue.\u201d In Borrego Springs, the planning group suggested a cap on short-term rentals according to a defined percentage of available housing.<\/p>\n
County Supervisor Joel Anderson represents dozens of unincorporated communities in rural East County, including Julian. He said his office is actively surveying residents to further understand their stance on short-term rental regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cCounty regulations\/ordinances don\u2019t just regulate one community; it must be the entire unincorporated area and respective communities,\u201d Anderson said in a statement. \u201cWe have to balance the needs of all communities when considering proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Borrego Springs to Julian, the recent surge of short-term rentals in pockets of unincorporated San Diego County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[38931,34643,77490,25033,7,3053,10428,10629,8303,10635,181,23,100,3054,155953,15550,74,84,76,75,3055,8500,1696,30905],"class_list":["post-386962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-alpine","tag-bonita","tag-bonsall-unincorporated","tag-borrego-springs","tag-california","tag-east-county","tag-escondido","tag-fallbrook","tag-growth-development","tag-jamul","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-north-county","tag-palomar-mountain-uninc","tag-ramona","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-south-county","tag-spring-valley","tag-top-stories-sdut","tag-valley-center-uninc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}