On Aug. 18, the Atlanta City Council approved Ordinance 25-O-1249, a measure banning new short-term rentals in the Home Park neighborhood. The ordinance was passed with a 12-2 vote. The decision followed months of heated debate between residents who expressed that investor-owned Airbnbs were disrupting community life, and hosts who rely on rental income to make ends meet.
Councilmember Jason Dozier was among the few to vote against the ban. His opposition, he said, wasn’t about siding with investors, but about insisting that the city enforce its existing rules before passing new ones.
“I thought the legislation that this body put together and adopted [in 2021] was really good legislation,” Dozier said in an interview. “Our city has unfortunately been unwilling to enforce that legislation.” In 2022, the City of Atlanta adopted legislation requiring short-term rentals to apply for a license. To date, this legislation is not being enforced.
For Dozier, the core issue is not whether short-term rentals belong in Atlanta, but whether City Hall has done the work to manage them. Over the past few years, he said, he has repeatedly asked the Department of City Planning when enforcement would begin. Each time, the answer was that it would happen soon. “I’d be told next month or two months or next week — and then that date would come, and there would be no enforcement,” he said.
That pattern, he added, left him unwilling to support any new policy. “I’m not going to support any new short-term rental legislation until we make an attempt to enforce the existing legislation that’s on the books,” he said.
Dozier acknowledged that Atlanta’s administration may be wary of legal challenges, but he believes fear of litigation can’t justify inaction. “We get sued all the time,” he said. “If we’re afraid that a judge might tell us we’re wrong, then let a judge tell us that. But we have to run a city that improves the quality of life for our citizens.”
While the Home Park ban passed with strong support, Dozier said he understood the motivation. “We want to keep Atlanta, Atlanta,” he said. “We want to preserve our communities. And I get why my colleagues supported the legislation — they’re trying to provide relief.”
Still, he worries the city is now setting a precedent for a patchwork approach. “Other neighborhoods are going to see the example that Home Park has really established and want to get in on some of that action,” he said. “We don’t want to be barreling toward a piecemeal sort of solution.”
That concern may already be coming true. Councilmember Howard Shook, who represents much of Buckhead, has introduced a proposal to ban short-term rentals there as well, an indication that Home Park could become the model for neighborhood-by-neighborhood restrictions.
At the August 18 meeting where the ordinance passed, residents described sleepless nights and safety fears tied to nearby rentals. Hosts, meanwhile, painted a very different picture. Cabbagetown resident Nadia Giordani*, a single mother who has been a Superhost for nine years, told Council that Airbnb income allowed her to keep her home and pay for her daughter’s college education. “Being a host has allowed me to stay in my home,” she said. “I put my daughter through college with no college debt.”
Home Park resident Lana Kuchyinski said the opposite experience has shaped her view of the ban. A longtime homeowner who lives near several short-term rentals, she said weekends often bring “cars lined down the street, loud music, and strangers I’ve never seen before.” She told Council that the neighborhood “just doesn’t feel like Home Park anymore.”
Dozier said those conflicting experiences reflect the heart of the issue. “You have folks that have an extra bedroom they want to rent out because taxes are getting sky high,” he said. “But you also have folks buying properties exclusively to convert them into short-term rentals, and that has a tremendous negative impact on the community.”
He pointed to a property in his own Mechanicsville neighborhood as an example. An owner converted an entire eight-unit apartment building into short-term rentals, displacing longtime tenants in the process. “Those people had been part of the community for years,” Dozier said. “When they were pushed out, it changed the culture of the neighborhood.”
Even so, Councilmember Dozier emphasized that he isn’t opposed to the short-term rental industry itself. “I do want people to be able to maximize their properties in a way that allows them to generate additional revenue,” he said. “It’s hard out here — whether you’re a homeowner or renter.”
But he believes Atlanta’s affordability crisis runs much deeper. “The reason we have a housing affordability challenge is that we don’t have enough units available for people to rent or to buy,” he said. “Taking rental units off the market makes that worse, but it’s not the biggest driver.”
Dozier argues that the city must do both: enforce the laws it has and accelerate housing production. “We’ve got to build more houses, but we also have to preserve existing affordable housing,” he said. “We haven’t been able to get as many units in the pipeline as we need to really put a dent in how much housing costs.”
The passage of the Home Park ordinance signals a turning point in Atlanta’s struggle to balance neighborhood stability, tourism, and housing access. But for Dozier, the next step isn’t another ban, it’s accountability.
“Let’s make sure the legislation we already passed is doing what it was meant to do,” he said. “We can’t know that if we don’t enforce it.”
Editor’s Note: The reporter is related to Naida Giordani, who is mentioned in this story. She was included for context, and her comments are drawn from the public record.
I agree with Councilman Dozier. Why layer ordinance on ordinance? If someone is violating the existing requirements, enforcement is the answer. Not a total ban that restricts law-abiding and respectful property owners’ rights. This is like shutting down a class because one or two students are disruptive. Or throwing out the entire bushel because there’s one gross apple. But that’s politics. Whomever screams the loudest wins – especially headed into an election.
In newer neighborhoods with an HOA, we see STRs banned regularly in their bylaws (esp. condominium complexes). Older neighborhoods w/o HOAs must rely on the City (neighborhood associations, then NPU, then Board of Zoning, then City Council and finally the Mayor’s signature) to get measures passed. It’s a disadvantage for neighborhoods trying to implement rules that only apply to their neighborhood.
The author failed to mention that this was the third time that the Home Park Community Association tried to get the ban passed – and it ONLY applies to Home Park.
City government should recognize (especially BZA) that they are the defacto HOA for these older neighborhoods instead and standing on the “bad public policy” statements we hear from BZA board members and Councilman Dozier.