Bring Back Flophouses, SROs, And Microapartments
Some cities are allowing these: forms of housing that aren't ideal for many more established people but make it possible for some -- especially the young -- to have a roof over their head and live in an urban area.
I lived in one of these -- a fixed-up SRO called the George Washington Hotel, at 23rd and Lex, when I first got to New York. It was an 8 x 10 room with no stove and a bathroom so small you couldn't sit down on the toilet and close the door, but it was a roof over my head, which meant I could get on with life in New York until I found a bigger place, which I eventually did. (A 350 square-foot apartment on 36th between 2nd and 3rd.)
Alan Durning writes at Slate that dumb urban policies killed the best types of housing for the poor, young, and single, but in "smart cities," they are making a comeback:
The private housing market could do much more to provide living spaces affordably if we discarded those requirements that merely protect others' property values by outlawing rooming houses and other simple housing options.Historically, the bottom of the scale for inexpensive housing was not the rooming house but the flophouse--essentially a hall of bunks or sleeping slabs. Aside from homeless shelters, North America no longer has flophouses. A century of regulation shut them down. But in Japan, they live on in modern form in "capsule hotels," which rent enclosed sleeping spaces by the hour or the night. In one $30-a-night Tokyo hotel, the sleeping capsules are stacked in pairs and are just big enough for a single mattress. Yet they each offer air conditioning, a radio and mini TV, a reading light, and a privacy screen. Guests share bathrooms, showers, a lounge, restaurant, and bar.
In most American cities, such 21st-century flophouses would be illegal on any number of grounds. The "rooms" are much too small: Habitable rooms may not be smaller than 7 feet by 7 feet in Seattle, for example; sleeping rooms must be bigger still. The hotels do not provide off-street parking for each room, and some do not have enough bathrooms to satisfy codes, which typically require one bathroom per eight units. The "rooms" themselves--the capsules--are code enforcers' nightmares: Among other things, they lack the windows, fire-safe doors, smoke detectors, and closets required of each legal bedroom. If regulated as dormitories (bunkhouses) rather than as separate bedrooms, meanwhile, they would violate other rules: They lack the requisite unencumbered floor space, for example.
Yet Japan has many such hotels, and its fire-safety record is better than that of the United States. Throngs of travelers and city workers stay in the capsule hotels, appreciating the low prices and clean, safe, convenient accommodations. They are cheap, too, at least by Japan's stratospheric real-estate standards. Even in the Northwest, a bed for $30 a night would be cheaper than a taxi home for some Saturday night pub crawlers. And capsule hotels operate at a profit, without public subsidy, filling one of many niches in Japan's housing market.
Imagine a continuum of such choices, extending downward from today's studio apartments. Along this continuum, we'd have complete studios smaller than those currently permitted, followed by tiny units with private baths but without full kitchens, then updated rooming houses with shared baths and kitchens, then capsule hotels. A few brave developers have been trying to reverse a century of policies on a small scale by building neo-SROs and microapartments in cities. They're responding to the strong demand, especially among millennials, for small, inexpensive units in popular, pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods such as Seattle's Capitol Hill and Portland's Pearl District.
Durning's just-published e-book: Unlocking Home: Three Keys to Affordable Communities
"Yet Japan has many such hotels, and its fire-safety record is better than that of the United States. Throngs of travelers and city workers stay in the capsule hotels, appreciating the low prices and clean, safe, convenient accommodations. They are cheap, too, at least by Japan's stratospheric real-estate standards."
And, as MarkD will probably tell you, Japan is so much unlike America that it may as well be another planet.
No litigation over imagined slights, a homogenous population subservient to general order - and the capsules are not mandated by Federal and state law to have every amenity for the handicapped in each and every one.
If you packed Americans into commuter trains like the Japanese, they'd kill each other in a frenzy of exploding ego, having been told from birth they each rate special treatment.
Radwaste at July 22, 2013 2:39 AM
Yeah Radwaste is right. Every time I visited my friend over in Japan I thought geez why can't we have those tiny tiny living apartments here in the U.S.
Then I realized its exactly what Radwaste said: "a homogenous population subservient to general order". Those tiny living places have rules and people actually followed the rules!..I can not for the life of me think poor, young, and single people here would do that.
Sorry but poor people are a nightmare to rent to here in this country. I've lived in poor neighborhoods so you can't tell me I haven't experienced it.
Right now I live around a bunch of old white people and rich Asians and damn life is good.
Ppen at July 22, 2013 3:26 AM
Something of the sort would be a boon. When I was homeless and unemployed, I was lucky enough to get into a charity-supported single-room building: some of us became employed, but were allowed to stay in return for 33% of income. About 20 rooms per floor, a communal bathroom with 4 stalls and 4 showers, six sinks. A microwave in a communal area, with washer and dryer (coin operated, but one day per week those with absolutely no money were subsidized). This would have been a good deal for fast-food and store counter workers, but too rare for those - perhaps explaining why most such lived with others such as parents.
Had it not been a charity, and/or "grandfathered" as having been built in 1917... Mind, as limited as it was I doubt it could be built privately today in the same manner because it would be outside a manageable budget: but something similar can and should be built.
John A at July 22, 2013 7:28 AM
Japan is different, and it is also extremely cold in the winter time.
They have their poor, and also a high rate of alcoholism.
Tube hotels are a phenomena for the major metro areas, and are frequented by businessmen.
They are not Japans flop houses.
The policies of the major US metro areas are deliberately constructed to drive the indigent south where sleeping under bridges and in cardboard boxes will allow them to survive.
Isab at July 22, 2013 10:45 AM
"can and should be built". Why? If it was worth it monetarily, you can bet some company would find a way to, as many condo buildings as they are throwing up like cards here in Texas.
As a charity? Ok. Want it right next to you? I don't. I spent a lot of money on my house, I continue to spend, and I will fight anything that will lessen my ability to sell for a decent price. Any area that goes in to will have a rise in crime. So you can see why people aren't lining up demanding this.
Most would probably rather live with their parents in a nicer area, or with multiple roommates in a nicer area-than in one of these anyway.
momof4 at July 22, 2013 2:37 PM
And to us down south, EVERY apartment up north is a microapartment.
momof4 at July 22, 2013 2:38 PM
If I recall my history correctly; such housing was outlawed in NYC by, you guessed it, liberals. They claimed it was inhumane to allow people to live like that (funny, they claim that is inhumane to not allow the homeless to sleep on church steps too).
But, one thing so many forget (or choose to ignore, I'm not sure which) is that such housing is, as you state in your post, a stepping stone - not something meant to be permanent.
Liberals do the same with jobs - "every job should pay a living wage." Not realizing that some jobs are "first jobs" and are not meant to be the same job for life.
In both housing and jobs, liberals (self-proclaimed do-gooders) seem to not realize that people are not meant to be in the same station in life from cradle to grave. Conservatives, for the most part, seem to realize that people can, and do, move up and down in the world based upon their own achievements (or lack thereof).
Charles at July 22, 2013 6:33 PM
I remember going through an airport one time and having an overnight wait.
They had a "hotel" which was basically a twin bed on a slab and a shower/bathroom. It was an hourly rate of $35 and nightly of $80.
I was too broke to do the overnight of $80, but if the overnight was $35 I would have stayed. It was what I needed for the shower and cleanup.
But in most American cities I could probably panhandle the fee. That would be all I need to survive until I made the job or moved on at a monthly rates.
Jim P. at July 22, 2013 7:40 PM
Boarding houses are the answer. You rent rooms in your large house, furnish communal dinners and everyone's happy.
KateC at July 22, 2013 9:49 PM
Allowing private sector to play havoc with real estate is a sure recipe for real estate prices rising to unbelievable levels. Just look at the prices in India and China where prices are so high compared to incomes(of course, it is not a free market there and the real estate lobby is ably supported by politicians of all hues in those two countries). Having rules like minimum size and minimum open space and not allowing credit actually helps to keep the prices low and prevents things from falling to ever lower standards. Think of it as the equivalent of rules for minimum wages and holidays to ensure quality of life. Real estate in USA is a dream compared to any place in Asia or Europe. If you want to get inspired, get inspired by something better, not something worse just because it apparently seems cheaper on the surface
Redrajesh at July 23, 2013 6:47 PM
Boarding houses are the answer. You rent rooms in your large house, furnish communal dinners and everyone's happy.
Posted by: KateC at July 22, 2013 9:49 PM
This worked back in the day, when you could throw someone out for violating the rules or just about any other reason.
If you take a look at tennants rights law in any large city you would quickly understand that you would have to be freaking insane to rent out rooms in your house to anyone who would actually want or need to live in a boarding house.
Most people arent either that stupid or desperate enough to allow a bunch of crackheads, thieves and the mentally ill to actually share a common area.
Boarding houses are friendly charming places, only in light fiction, certainly not in the real world.
Isab at July 24, 2013 1:42 PM
This might be the most wonderful divergence from reality I've seen this year:
"Allowing private sector to play havoc with real estate is a sure recipe for real estate prices rising to unbelievable levels."
Wow. Must be that horrible free market, huh? The one that aims for 100% occupancy and is self-correcting for demand?
Oh, wait - it's not:
"...(of course, it is not a free market there and the real estate lobby is ably supported by politicians of all hues in those two countries).
Then, an OMGLOL1!1!!111! example:
"Having rules like minimum size and minimum open space and not allowing credit actually helps to keep the prices low and prevents things from falling to ever lower standards. Think of it as the equivalent of rules for minimum wages and holidays to ensure quality of life."
Minimum wage laws do no such thing. In fact, this exposes an astounding lack of appreciation for the major effect of such law:
A minimum wage law sets the value of the dollar. Since the unit, "an hour of work" cannot be changed, raising the minimum wage always lowers the value of a dollar.
It's only a way to get the ignorant to vote for you.
And now, you compare completely different economic systems to try to buttress your assertion!:
"Real estate in USA is a dream compared to any place in Asia or Europe."
Really. Most of the USA works on the free market for real estate. Nice job!
Radwaste at July 24, 2013 4:20 PM
Japan is very different. You can be kicked out and banned from a capsule very easily-- including snoring too loudly, coming to the place drunk, any drinking or eating on site...uh...any body art. Very different than US.
Last time I stayed in a capsule was 2007 (maybe 2008) and it was $35 for a deluxe one that they forced me to upgrade to because of my size. Even then I didn't have room to turn around. Lets think about that at a monthly basis 35x30=1050...which is almost what my friend pays for his (tiny) apartment in Tokyo (and it is close in...just two stops to NihomBashi). It is quite tiny - two twin sized futon mattresses covered the floor not in the kitchen or bathroom.
Another friend used to have a tiny apartment in Seattle and it was only $600/month. Kitchen was a sink and burner in cabinet, shared bathroom. That was in the early 2000s.
Talk about resident rights...I remember reading about a couple who rented a room made up in there garage to there son, he let a friend live there...then the son got thrown in jail and they couldn't do anything about the friend until the rent was not paid for 6 months or expired for 6 months. They could ask him to move, even pay him to move, but they could not force him to do anything.
The Former Banker at July 24, 2013 8:22 PM
And just to remind everyone: what minimum-wage laws do is create a scarcity of jobs for low-skilled labor. Because minimum wage prices such labor above its true value, businesses that need such labor have to find alternatives. These are the alternatives:
1. Move the jobs offshore, to a place where you can find low-skill labor at market rates.
2. Bring in automation to take the place of the low-skill labor.
3. Bring in illegal immigrants who, because of their illegal status, can be paid market rates.
4. Don't go into business in the first place.
And of course, for people who only have low-skill labor to offer, it prevents them from being self-sufficient because jobs for them are so scarce. On the other hand, welfare is easy and readily available. This is how you destroy the lower economic classes. Leftism is elitism.
Cousin Dave at July 25, 2013 7:11 AM
To add some understanding to the Former Bankers comments about capsule hotels in Japan.
The Japanese really frown on body art. It is a gang thing in Japan and associated with the Yakuza.
Yes, Japan has organized crime. Most tourists will never encounter it unless they are druggies or accidentally wander into a Yakuza controlled bar or nightclub. Hard to do, as they will turn away non Japanese at the door.
Isab at July 25, 2013 9:39 AM
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