For hosts across D.C., Tuesday was supposed to be a fateful day—a new law allowing short-term rentals booked through homesharing platforms like Airbnb, HomeAway, and VRBO was scheduled to take effect.

The new law, which was passed by the D.C. Council in late 2018, broadly allows homeowners to use the platforms to rent out a room, basement, or carriage house on their property for short periods of time, provided they get a business license.

The law sets no limits on short-term rentals while the homeowner is present, but imposes a 90-day annual cap if they are not. (An exemption is available for people whose jobs require them to travel out of the city more than 90 days a year.)

Most notably, the law bans the use of second and third homes for short-term rentals.

The Council originally wanted the law to take effect Oct. 1, but zoning laws still technically prohibit Airbnbs from operating in residential areas. Enforcement of the law is being held off until later this month, when the D.C. Zoning Commission holds a hearing. The commission is expected to approve a change to the zoning code that will allow short-term rentals—meaning any rental of less than 30 days at a time—in residential neighborhoods.

Without the change, short-term rentals would remain illegal, forcing hosts to stop renting out their homes and drying up the tax revenue some of the platforms already remit to the city.

“All the pieces of the puzzle are together except for that one outstanding piece of the Zoning Commission,” says Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, who wrote the bill. “Sadly, we’re still in a state of uncertainty.”

City officials say that once the zoning change is approved, they can move forward on implementing the new law—which will include issuing regulations and staffing a new enforcement office within the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. But until then, McDuffie says, residents looking for guidance on what’s legal and what’s not remain “incredibly frustrated” with the ongoing delays.

Officials with Airbnb—the single biggest home-sharing platform in the city, with more than 7,300 active rentals—similarly say some hosts have been in a holding pattern over how the law will impact them.

“They’re obviously asking a lot of questions and we’re trying to give them as many answers as we have,” says Kelley Gossett, who works for Airbnb on policy in D.C. and the Mid-Atlantic. “Unfortunately, we don’t have clear direction yet, so that’s a little frustrating.”

Though it’s the biggest market for home-sharing in the region, D.C. is the last jurisdiction to regulate the practice—and will be among the most restrictive. In Montgomery County, the annual cap on short-term rentals when the home’s owner is not present is 120 days; in Arlington County it’s 185 days. (Here are the rules for Fairfax County, Prince George’s County, Loudoun County, and Alexandria.)

Gossett says D.C.’s law is “stringent, “onerous,” and among the strictest in the country. San Francisco similarly restricts short-term rentals when the owner is not present to 90 days a year, and bans the use of second homes or apartments for home-sharing. In New York, no rental of fewer than 30 days at a time is allowed if the home’s owner or leaseholder isn’t present.

Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway, FlipKey, and other home-sharing platforms say regulation will negatively impact hosts who use short-term rentals to make additional money, with fewer of them able to rent out spaces, as well as visitors to the city who will be denied diverse options for places to stay.

But proponents say it’s a necessary step to rein in a growing market that diverts housing options away from long-term renters and could be putting a further squeeze on the lack of affordable housing in the city.

Housing advocates say they have found examples of rent-controlled buildings being used exclusively for short-term rentals, and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine has investigated cases in dozens of buildings where apartments were offered only for short-term rentals. Two recent studies—one from Boston, the other from Barcelona—found that increased Airbnb activity can lead to higher rent prices in certain neighborhoods.

While the short-term rentals bill passed the D.C. Council unanimously, Mayor Muriel Bowser has repeatedly expressed her concerns with it. While she opted not to veto it, she told the Council in a letter that it “could have struck a better balance between these legitimate interests.”

Bowser also delayed submitting a report to the Zoning Commission this summer necessary to move the needed zoning changes along, prompting Council Chairman Phil Mendelson to threaten to deny her building permits for certain projects until the report was finished.

“I think it’s disappointing,” says Mendelson on the delay of the law’s implementation. “The mayor blocked the Zoning Commission from taking up the case for many months, which is why the zoning regulations prohibit short-term rentals in residential districts while the Council’s legislation would permit them.”

Gossett worries that once the law kicks in, many Airbnb hosts in the city will simply drop off the platform.

“This is a really strict [law], unfortunately. It is going to make a lot of folks unhappy and be bereft of the home-sharing opportunity,” she says.

But Mendelson thinks the possible impact on legal short-term rentals will be relatively minimal.

“The fact is that the vast majority of short-term rentals which are in people’s homes will be legal once the zoning commission takes the final step that implements the Council’s law,” he says. “People who have investment units, which is a minority of the short-term rentals, will find that the restrictions will make it impossible for them to act legally.”

This story originally appeared at WAMU.

Previously: 

Mayor Bowser And D.C. Council Spar Over Airbnb Regulations
Bowser Says D.C.’s Airbnb Law May Be Unconstitutional, But She Isn’t Using Her Veto Power
D.C. Will Restrict Short-Term Rentals Like Airbnb
D.C.’s Proposed Regulations For Services Like Airbnb, Explained