A report from Mission Local in California. "In recent weeks, Mission residents have been receiving curious missives in their mailboxes inquiring whether they’d be game to monetize their kitchens and living rooms by having strangers drop in and start doing office work. As if to clear up any ambiguities, these fliers feature a photo of three young, happy business casual types sitting at a table and peering at laptops."

"It’s a note from Cobo, a nascent startup hoping to capitalize on what its founder calls “a billion-dollar market”: Placing lonely freelancers pining for company into people’s homes, monetizing that home, and taking a cut."

"Rafe Oller, Cobo’s marketing head, declined to say much, as a launch is imminent: 'We don’t want to do advance press.' When asked if Cobo had done any advance press with this ity’s government, he replied: 'We’ve been working with the local government, yes.'"

"Well, that’s one way of putting it. When Cobo mailed out fliers to residents of the Mission, Cole Valley, and elsewhere in order to find freelancers willing to pay $10 a day or more to work in strangers’ kitchens and strangers willing to host them — it managed to inadvertently solicit several employees of the San Francisco Planning Department at their homes."

"It’s funny, but not ha-ha funny, that the two tech startups-turned-titans that currently epitomize San Francisco — Uber and Airbnb — vastly increased congestion in one of the nation’s most congested cities and cannibalized affordable housing in one of the nation’s most unaffordable cities."

"Their business models were, additionally, strictly illegal under city law. And yet they flourished here regardless, not because of some newfangled technological ingeniousness but good old-fashioned co-opting of politicians and institutions via money."

"If you or your principal investors aren’t tight with politicians or regulators, and you can’t induce them to look the other way or rewrite the law so as to enable your company (and, in a neat two-for, kneecap your competitors), then entitled and destructive behavior is less likely to be tolerated."

"And, while Cobo disseminated fliers throughout the Mission, it never contacted the neighborhood’s elected representative, Supervisor Hillary Ronen. 'I have the same worries I had with Airbnb,' she says. 'These homes were not meant to be offices. I worry about it escalating the already egregious cost of housing.'"

"Cobo’s website allows for up to six workers to drop by one’s home for up to five days a week. With this income — plus potential short-term rentals on Airbnb or similar sites — the notion of taking a home off the market and converting it into a full-time office/hotel/not-a-home is hardly far-fetched."

"Just how Cobo plans to ensure unscrupulous people won’t exploit its site is something city officials would have loved to discuss prior to fliers showering the neighborhood. 'But that has not been the model,' says Ronen. 'The model has been to flout and break laws, get people hooked to the service, and force city government to bend to the will of a scofflaw company by becoming a powerful force in lobbying and financing of candidates and campaigns and politicians in Sacramento.'"

From NBC 2 in Florida. "Collier County leaders are cracking down on people who rent out their homes short term, but the homeowners who are renting said that there are benefits to the visitors and the county. Bill Archer rents out a few of his houses to people who are looking forward to soaking up the sun in Naples."

"'You upload the pictures, it goes out there, and it goes all over the world, and people see your property,' said Archer. 'We look at it as an investment. We wanted to get into the market.'"

The Mount Desert Islander in Maine. "Property owners hoping to begin renting to vacationers this summer may be out of luck, depending on the outcome of a Town Council vote. Town Planner Michele Gagnon proposed an emergency moratorium on new, non-hosted vacation rentals."

"The rise in non-hosted vacation rentals, Gagnon wrote, has 'result[ed] in the loss of affordable housing, negative impacts to adjacent properties, constant turnovers in the high season and dark vacant homes in the low season.'"

The Star Telegram in Texas. "When Kari Garcia saw the north Arlington home across the street transformed into an Airbnb listing, she was stunned. In what had been a historically quiet neighborhood, large groups began staying at the house for everything from family reunions to football games at AT&T Stadium, she said."

"She has had little recourse since the homeowner lives out of state. 'We’ve had party buses parked across the street and anywhere from four to 12 cars parked in the neighborhood,' Garcia said. 'I can’t let my kids outside to ride their bikes and shoot hoops. It doesn’t feel safe anymore.'"

From Fast Company. "HomeShare has cut a majority of its staff, reports the San Fransisco Chronicle. The San Francisco-based startup matched applicants who lived in luxury apartment buildings with roommates with the goal of helping people find more affordable housing in some of the most crowded housing markets in the country, including San Fransisco, Seattle, and New York City."

"The company’s CEO Jeff Pang wrote in a blog post that the company was jettisoning its role as a middleman payment processor and laying off most of its staff 'due to unforeseen financial constraints.'"

"'Based on feedback from customers and partners, acting as a middle-man for payments was adding complexity and confusion to the billing process. As a result, we decided to remove ourselves from the payment flow so that residents could pay leasing offices directly.'"

"As for HomeShare, it’s not shutting down entirely, but Pang notes there are some rough times ahead as it looks to get back onto its feet and win back the trust of its users: 'In all candor, it has been a tough few weeks for our community of partners and residents. However, I’m hopeful that this difficult month of transition will be followed by a simpler and better customer experience. Over time, we will strive to serve customers and earn back any lost trust.'"