We have a workaround for this issue.
1. Stop your Simulator(s).
2. You will have to kill all of the $ANDROID_HOME processes.
3. Update the local.properties file of each Simulator running and add this property:
ANDROID_HOME=" "
4. Start the Simulator(s).
5. No extra ANDROID_HOME processes will start.
6. You should also not see any further "ANDROID_HOME not set" messages in the simulator.log.