For years, the public debate over short-term rentals in New York was framed as a fight between two powerful industries: Airbnb and the hotel lobby. It wasn't, and treating it that way did real damage.

That framing left almost no room for the people actually living in one- and two-family homes — not tenants, not corporations, not platforms, but families who happened to be renting a spare room to help cover a mortgage or property taxes. Airbnb wasn't fighting for them specifically; it was fighting for its own broader business interests, which sometimes aligned with homeowners and sometimes didn't. The hotel industry, meanwhile, had every financial incentive to make the entire debate about eliminating a competitor, whether or not that competitor looked anything like an actual hotel. Homeowners were caught in the middle of a fight that was never really about them, absorbing the cost of a battle between two corporate interests neither of which represented their specific situation.

New York Homeowners Alliance exists because that third group needed a voice the platform fight was never going to give them. NYHOA has never taken sides in the conflict between Airbnb and the hotel industry, because its mission was never to represent either one. Its mission has always been to represent homeowners — a distinction that matters, because it's the difference between defending a corporation and defending a right.

For most of this legislative effort, NYHOA received no funding, sponsorship, or support from Airbnb or its affiliates. Airbnb backed a separate, broader proposal — Intro 1107 — before that effort didn't advance, after which the company began supporting the narrower, homeowner-specific bill NYHOA had already built independently. That sequence matters: the legislation reflected in this record was never written to protect a platform's revenue. It was written to protect a homeowner's right to use the home they already own.

Short-term rentals existed long before Airbnb. Homeowner rights existed long before both. The platform changed. Our rights did not.