There are over 4 million people using the accommodation-sharing platform in more than 100,000 cities around the world. 

But one city has fallen out of love with the app.  

Florence, one of Europes most popular tourist destinations, is now planning to ban property owners from turning to short-term rental platforms like Airbnbas a way to help solve its housing crisis.

Short-term rentals driving a housing crisis

As students in Florence camp out in tents on campuses to protest a lack of affordable housing, its mayor criticized the central governments completely ineffective crackdown on rental homes that were driving high rent and impacting housing availability. 

The housing emergency has become a national emergency, at the top of the agenda of many cities in our country, the Tuscan citys mayor, Dario Nardella, stressed while pointing to over-tourism and the explosion of short-term holiday lettings as the key drivers of the crisis. 

In response, Nardella has taken matters into his own hands, announcing yesterday that new proposals will be passed by the local government to block any new short-term rentals.

His measures, dubbed saving historic downtowns, wont impact properties already active on Airbnb or similar.

But, according to local Italian newspapers, the measures ban homeowners at the Unesco site from listing their property on the likes of Airbnb from now going forwards.  

Whats more, the mayor plans to tempt current short-term holiday home hosts to convert their places back to long-term rentals with tax breaks. 

Under the plan, property taxes on a second home would be canceled for up to three years, potentially adding up to thousands of euros in savings, for landlords that stop using the likes of Airbnb.

A global issue

Florence isnt the only city where homes are being held hostage by those wanting to profit from holidaymakers.

Cities in the U.S., Portugal, Spain, Britain, Canada, France, and more are complaining that the highly profitable holiday lettings market has created a supply shortage, driven up rent, forced out residents, and resulted in ghost towns.

One popular coastal hotspot in the U.K, Cornwall, has 20 times more properties available on Airbnb than it has for long-term rent. Meanwhile, in New York City last April, the number of rental homes available was around 7,669 compared to over 10,500 Airbnb rentals, according to AirDNA.

Its driven many cities, including New York City, to draft restrictions on short-term rentals similar to the ones proposed by Nardella.

But unsurprisingly this hasnt gone down well with Airbnb.

The San Francisco-based online marketplace for holiday homes yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Big Apple over the new law which it described as a de facto ban against short-term rentals.

In a news conference Thursday, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the restrictions that could affect some of the fastest-growing suburbs of the nations fifth-largest city.

Officials said developers could still build in the affected areas but would need to find alternative water sources to do so such as surface or recycled water.

Driving the states decision was a projection that showed that over the next 100 years, demand in metro Phoenix for almost 4.9 million acre-feet of groundwater would be unmet without further action, Hobbs said. An acre-foot of water is roughly enough for two to three U.S. households per year.

Despite the move, the governor said the state isnt running out of water. Nobody who has water is going to lose their water, Hobbs said.

Officials said the move would not affect existing homeowners who already have assured water supplies.

Hobbs added that there are 80,000 unbuilt homes that will be able to move forward because they already have assured water supply certificates within the Phoenix Active Management Area, a designation used for regulating groundwater.

Years of drought in the West worsened by climate change have ratcheted up pressure among Western states to use less water. Much of the focus has stayed on the dwindling Colorado River, a main water source for Arizona and six other Western states. Over the past two years, Arizonas supply from the 1,450-mile powerhouse of the West has been cut twice.

Phoenix relies on imported Colorado River water and also uses water from the in-state Salt and Verde rivers. A small amount of the citys water supply comes from groundwater and recycled wastewater.

The drought has made groundwater held in underground aquifers that can take many years to be replenished even more vital.

Under a 1980 state law aimed at protecting the states aquifers, Phoenix, Tucson and other Arizona cities have restrictions on how much groundwater they can pump. But in rural areas, there are few limitations on its use.

Long pumped by farmers and rural residents in Arizona with little oversight, Hobbs and other state officials recently vowed to take more steps to protect the states groundwater supplies.

In rapidly growing Phoenix suburbs such as Queen Creek and Buckeye, developers have relied on unallocated groundwater to show that they had adequate water supplies for the next 100 years, which Arizona requires for building permits in some areas.

Developers rely on groundwater because it has been frankly, cheaper and easier for them, and they have been able to move through the process much more quickly, said Nicole Klobas, chief counsel for the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

Under the new restrictions, that wont be possible.

It closes off that path, said Kathryn Sorenson, director of research at the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University.

Because the rule largely affects cities and towns outside Phoenix and larger cities in the metro area, Sorenson said developers would likely weigh whether they want to continue to buy relatively cheap land and incur the cost of developing a whole new water supply versus purchase land that is probably more expensive without the boundaries of a designated city.

Over the past 18 months, something profound happened: We all stopped pretending. Employees former secret battleswith depression, anxiety, PTSD, and moreevolved into the foremost concern workplaces are looking to solve over the next five years. In one fell swoop, mental illness skyrocketed and employers, health plans, and health systems were immediately under pressure to meet the need.

I am watching CEOs, CHROs, and heads of benefits sprint to onboard mental health benefits to support their teams. Its a beautiful act of supportbut doing so without an understanding of our mental health care system and what todays solutions can and cant offer you can, at best, do nothing for your organization, and at worst, damage it. 

What were facing 

Mental illness is skyrocketing. Last year alone, 76% of U.S. workers reported at least one symptom of mental illness. The situation looks nothing like it did even three years ago. 

Every employee engagement survey you see reports mental health as the number one issue in organizations. And yet, utilization of mental health benefits is extremely low, with the average utilization rate by employees hovering around 2%. 

This is impacting the bottom line: absenteeism, productivity, turnover rates, and even customer net promoter score. Today, mental illness drives 200 million lost workdays each year at a cost of $17 to $44 billion to employers annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Employees are now going directly to their people managers to discuss their depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions. But people managers do not have the tools to manage these conversations. The repercussions can be dangerous.

The future population of our workplace 

In less than a decade, Gen Z and Millennials will make up 60% of our global workforce. They are the future foundation of our workplacesbut this generation is also our sickest. Some 91% of Gen Z adults have experienced at least one physical symptom because of their mental health.

Compared to pre-pandemic rates, behavioral health utilization is up 35% for Millennials and their children. Relative to previous generations, Gen Zers are about twice as likely to battle depression. In fact, 42% of the Gen Z population already live with a diagnosed mental health condition.

Whats more, 81% of Gen Z adults and 68% of Millennials report leaving their jobs for mental health-related reasons. If we dont solve this issue, we will not have a workforce to speak of.

Why 1:1 therapy is not the perfect solution 

From truck drivers and manufacturing employees, to store associates and hospitality workers, deskless workers make up 80% of our global workforce and face high rates of mental illness with remarkably poor access to care.

Research shows that mistreatment by customerssomething that 62% of restaurant employees experienced in 2021 alonedrives burnout and leads to mental illness. 

Physically demanding hours are also all too common for deskless workers and affect their professional and personal lives. As an example, 32% of warehouse and transport workers say that their jobs make them too tired to engage with friends and family¹⁰social support that is crucial for strong mental health. 

Whats more, 47% of hourly employees report that they cannot easily anticipate what days and times they will work week to week, making an hour of 1:1 therapy appointment every week inaccessible. 

A good therapist can change your life via 1:1 therapybut its not sustainable for the 93% of employees without access to a therapist. Those who do have the means have issues with timingtaking one hour of your week during office hours is not realistic in most working environments. 

Across our entire country, the total number of therapists would only be enough to provide weekly therapy to 7% of the population. The problem is more profound for employees of color and we only have enough therapists of color to support 1.7% of people of color in our country. In order to improve mental health outcomes, clients need a therapist of the same race. As a result, people who need care do not receive it. They suffer progressively more because of it. 

As a society, we need solutions that will deliver better outcomes for workers. We need tools that are scalable, affordable, confidential, and trustworthy; accessible when employees need it; inclusive, engaging, and clinically effective. We must stop perpetuating a broken mental health care systemor else our workforce will suffer.

Ariela Safira founded Real, a mental wellness membership that offers a personalized everyday mental health journey, with on-demand therapist-created tools, and expert-led mental wellness events with engaging community stories to support you wherever you are on your mental wellness journey.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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After returning from the White House that day, McConnell called the president to privately urge him to shrink the room meaning no direct involvement in the talks for himself, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

That, McConnell stressed to Biden, was the only way to avert a potentially economy-rattling default.

A week later, Biden and McCarthy essentially adopted that path, tapping a handful of trusted emissaries to negotiate a deal that would lift the debt limit. It was a turning point in an impasse that until then, seemed intractable.

Having lived through the debacle of a 2011 debt-limit fight, Biden would not entertain any concessions for a task that he viewed as Congress fundamental responsibility. But McCarthy, prodded by conservatives insisting on sweeping changes to federal spending, was intent on using the nations borrowing authority as leverage even if it edged the U.S. closer to default.

The scramble that ensued showed how two of the most powerful figures in Washington who share a belief in the power of personal relationships, despite not having much of one between themselves  jointly staved off an unprecedented default that could have ravaged the economy and held unknown political consequences. Its a tale of an underestimated House speaker determined to defy expectations that he couldnt address a complex debt-limit fight, and a president who tuned out the noise from his own party to ensure a default would not happen on his watch.

But it was also a standoff largely instigated by Republicans who argued they needed to use the debt limit threat as a cudgel to rein in federal spending. And even with a resounding 314-117 House vote followed by a 63-36 Senate vote the episode is testing the durability of McCarthys speakership and his ability to tame a restive hard-right flank.

How you finish

McCarthy, now emboldened, is unfazed.

He reflected back on his election as speaker after the House passed the debt-limit package, referring to his long battle to claim the gavel in January. Every question you gave me (was), what could we survive, what could we even do? I told you then, its not how you start, its how you finish.

This account of the weeks-long saga of how Washington defused the debt-limit crisis is based on interviews with lawmakers, senior White House officials and top congressional aides, some who requested anonymity to discuss details of private negotiations.

Perhaps most critical to clearing the blockades were Biden and McCarthys five negotiators who came to the discussions armed with policy gravitas and empowered by their principals. Particularly comforting to Republicans was the presence of presidential counselor Steve Ricchetti, who speaks on behalf of Biden like no one else, and Shalanda Young, now the director of the Office and Management and Budget, who cut her teeth as a beloved senior congressional aide managing the complex annual appropriations process.

Young and Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, one of McCarthys negotiators, grew so close that they checked in each morning by phone as they did their respective day care dropoffs. Meanwhile, she and the other GOP negotiator, Rep. Garret Graves, who represents the south central part of Louisiana where Young hails from, ribbed each other over who had the better gumbo recipe and squeezed in debt-limit talks during a White House celebration for the national champion Louisiana State University womens basketball team.

The five negotiators Graves, McHenry, Ricchetti, Young and legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell met daily in a stately office on the first floor of the Capitol, under frescoes painted by the 19th century muralist Constantino Brumidi. Inside, they would home in with seriousness on priorities and red lines to figure out how they could reach a deal.

The pause button and a regressive offer

By May 19, the negotiations were getting shaky.

Republicans were losing patience as the White House didnt appear to be budging on curbing federal spending. For the GOP, anything short of that was a nonstarter.

During a morning meeting that Friday, White House officials pushed McHenry and Graves to put a formal offer on the table, but by that point, the frustrated Republicans decided to take it all public.

Republicans told reporters the talks had momentarily stopped. Graves, in a ball cap and blue button-up shirt that looked more apt for a fishing trip than high-stakes dealmaking, said as he walked briskly through the Capitol: We decided to press pause because its just not productive,

We were not going to play games here, Graves recounted later of his and McHenrys frustrations.

The friction wasnt about to ease. When the negotiations reconvened that night, McHenry and Graves put forward a fresh proposal to administration officials: It not only revived more of the rejected provisions in the GOPs debt-limit bill, but also included the House Republicans border-security bill for good measure.

One White House official called the offer regressive.

The White House went public with its own frustrations as the negotiations seemed to be going awry, first with a lengthy statement from communications director Ben LaBolt and then from Biden himself at a news conference in Hiroshima, Japan, where he was attending a summit of the worlds leading democracies.

Now its time for the other side to move their extreme positions, the president said. Because much of what theyve already proposed is simply, quite frankly, unacceptable.

Optimism, late nights and gummy worms

Even as the public rhetoric sharpened, there were signs that the talks were starting to take a better turn.

As Biden left Japan, he called McCarthy from Air Force One, and the speaker emerged appearing more optimistic than he had in days. Sustained by coffee, gummy worms and burritos, the negotiators worked grueling hours, mostly at the Capitol but once at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where they noshed on Call Your Mother bagel sandwiches sent over by Jeff Zients, the White House chief of staff.

One session lasted until 2:30 a.m. Graves, at another time, showed reporters an app on his phone that tracked his sleep, which showed he was averaging three hours a night during the final stretch.

Still, McCarthy sent lawmakers home over the Memorial Day weekend, which McHenry said helped.

The tone of the White House negotiators became much more serious and much more grounded in the realities they were going to have to accept, McHenry said.

Selling the deal

By May 27, Biden and McCarthy announced a deal in principle, and now had to sell the agreement in earnest.

The night before the vote, McCarthy gathered House Republicans in the basement of the Capitol, wheeled in pizza and walked lawmakers through the bill, while daring the Freedom Caucus members to use the same confrontational language they used at a news conference earlier in the day. By the time the meeting ended, it was clear McCarthy had subdued the revolt.

Meanwhile, the White House had work of its own to mollify rank-and-file Democrats.

Biden and McCarthy were a study in contrasting styles. The speaker chatted about the debt-limit talks at every turn throughout the negotiations to frame the debate on his terms; the president stayed silent by design, leery of fouling anything up before the deal was finalized.

Even as the deal was coming together, Biden had been privately trying to assuage his partys concerns. After the Congressional Progressive Caucus publicly eviscerated the few details that they knew of, particularly about toughening requirements for federal safety-net programs, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., got a call that night.

It was Biden. He assured her that his negotiators were working hard to minimize Republican-drafted changes to programs that offer food stamps and cash assistance.

I do believe that had we not done that, this would have been much worse than what I heard, Jayapal said.

After the deal was finalized, through phone calls and virtual briefings, White House officials answered questions, explained the agreements intricacies and fielded complaints from lawmakers about their communications strategy. As of Thursday, senior White House officials had called more than 130 lawmakers personally.

Biden himself got on the phone. On one call, he spoke with Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., the leader of the center-left New Democrats Coalition, and thanked her for the groups efforts to ensure the deal would pass.

I appreciate that he knows this institution so well, and that he understands what it takes to deliver these votes to get us across the line and to uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America, Kuster said. We all took an oath.

Late Wednesday night, as the House voted its approval with significant bipartisan support, Biden watched from the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, where he had traveled to for a commencement address at the Air Force Academy. On the phone with Biden throughout were Ricchetti and Terrell, who were listening in from the West Wing with other legislative aides, munching on more pizza.

In a statement after the vote, Biden sounded thankful and relieved.

Tonight, the House took a critical step forward to prevent a first-ever default and protect our countrys hard-earned and historic economic recovery, he said. This budget agreement is a bipartisan compromise. Neither side got everything it wanted. Thats the responsibility of governing.

Then the Senate labored toward its own vote. It passed the bill Thursday night.