{"id":138853,"date":"2026-01-26T21:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T21:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/138853\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T21:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T21:02:10","slug":"humble-city-council-bans-unauthorized-shared-living-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/138853\/","title":{"rendered":"Humble City Council bans unauthorized shared living homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHomes occupied by more than four unrelated adults could be fined up to $2,000 per day after Humble City Council<\/a> banned the units from residential neighborhoods Jan. 22<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How we got here<\/p>\n

City staff brought the restrictions to City Council due to a \u201crise of novel housing arrangements such as \u2018house sharing\u2019 or \u2018congregate living,\u2019\u201d according to meeting documents for City Council\u2019s regular Jan. 22 meeting. The situations targeted by the ordinance typically involve the individual rooms in a single-family home being rented out to multiple families.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not a hotel,\u201d City Manager Jason Stuebe said Jan. 22. \u201cIt’s not a boarding home. It’s not an apartment building. It’s this ungoverned gray area that everyone’s trying to figure out how to regulate. But currently, there’s not any state regulation on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rise in these living arrangements has created a \u201csignificant gap in regulation,\u201d making it difficult to ensure the facilities comply with fire and building codes, according to meeting documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve seen [congregate living situations] get as high as 13 [rented] rooms for one house, that I think was actually less than 2,000 square feet, at most,\u201d Stuebe said \u201cSo it’s creating a life-safety issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diving deeper<\/p>\n

According to the meeting documents, the approved rules:<\/p>\n

Apply to buildings with three or more sleeping rooms rented separatelyApply when people living in the house \u201cdo not function as a single house unit\u201d and may have individual leases, room locks and shared kitchens or bathroomsPrevent congregate living units from operating in residential neighborhoodsRestrict more than four unrelated adults from living in one \u201cdwelling unit,\u201d and more than two adults living in one bedroomRequire at least 150 square feet of \u201ctotal floor area\u201d per building occupantImpose a fine of $500-$2,000 per day for violationsRequire a permit from the city for congregate living units to operateHumble City Council\u2019s new rules do not apply to properties being used for Airbnb rentals<\/a>, Stuebe said via email Jan. 23. Airbnb is an international company that allows people to rent out part or entire homes or properties to guests for vacations, according to the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Quote of note<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re committed to protect our neighborhoods,\u201d Mayor Norman Funderburk said Jan. 22. \u201cI think it sums it up pretty well with this introduction to the ordinance where it says, \u2018Such housing arrangements have a potential to create nuisance conditions in residential areas, such as on- and off-street parking, among others.\u2019\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homes occupied by more than four unrelated adults could be fined up to $2,000 per day after Humble…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[58639,56,58,57,17040,57736,58637,58638,17042,20477,58640],"class_list":["post-138853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-congregate-living-ban-humble","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-humble-city-council","tag-humble-city-council-applications","tag-humble-city-council-neighborhood-regulations","tag-humble-city-council-shared-living-ban","tag-jason-stuebe","tag-norman-funderburk","tag-shared-housing-ban-humble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}