April 26, 2017
When Valerie Ervin was looking for a place to stay in D.C. late last year, she turned to Airbnb, the popular home-sharing service. She quickly found an apartment in a building in Columbia Heights she could rent by the night. “The unit that I actually rented myself from Airbnb for three nights was almost $1,100,” she said. “That’s probably what a family might pay for a month’s rent.” Ervin says the entire building was set up for short-term rentals, even though it was a rent-controlled building meant for long-term, low-income residents…