I would think transient room mates on renewable short leases would be much safer than bearing the brunt of San Francisco's LTR tenant laws.

There are multiple ways to invest in RE: single family, multi-family,  long term rentals, mid-term rentals, short-term rentals, rent by the room, commercial, co-ownership, syndications (I personally won't do syndications) etc. 

Short Sales, Bank Owned, $/sqft, school district, days on market, etc.  

Most people who invest internationally invest in short-term rentals and, unsurprisingly, that's what Mark is asking about.

I’ve been hearing some chatter about large hotel chains lobbying significant funds to push for regulations or outright bans on short-term rentals like Airbnb.

@Jon Martin  I agree and in short term its just not worth what you will get in reviews for something like this. 

Here's what works for me: 1) Posting your property on Facebook Marketplace2) Craigslist3) Talk to local universities or big corporations who may need short or long term housing for their clients4) Property managers are hit or miss.

This plays into the affordability issues for tenants by allowing them to live in nicer neighborhoods for less money, yet I get monthly revenue comparable to short-term rentals.I have also shifted my focus to buying better.

Short Answer is yes, via interest tracing rules. 

It seems to me though your short term objective is to get the HOA to take immediate action on the roof.