Interesting article.

w w w .citylab.com/equity/2018/02/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-american-sro/553946/

Very interesting article. Many of us get caught up in the idea that the recent past and the present is the way it's always been. This is a sort of myopia that prevents us from seeing the world that's unfolding before us.

One of the things I've noted in my experience over the past year is the normalcy of the tenants I have in the rooming house. That's not to say they don't have issues, but their issues are no worst and in some cases, a lot less, than the jokers I'm dealing with trying to fill vacancies in my apartment building. My tenants are not druggies and miscreants. Those folks are being made homeless and normal people are taking their places in the rooming houses. My tenants are normal people who happen to be short dollars and are casualties of high rents in this area--and the rents here are no where near major cities like New York and LA. The closer one is to major urban areas, the greater the problem.

The article makes a great point about the NIMBY issue as far as rooming houses are concerned also. One can see how that came about as the growing affluence of the post war years saw a migration of folks away from rooming houses into SFH and etc. That is reversing now.

IMO, the spot to be right now is in the rent range where folks can afford it and that's rooming houses and class C.

Social engineering rarely works out the way the social engineers intend. I'd much rather have turn-of-the-century rooming houses than modern homelessness.

I was driving to class in Houston, and due to circumstances, arrived at 3 am the morning classes were to start at 9 am. So rather than driving an extra two hours round-trip to get to my parents' place, or paying $150 to get a six-hour nap, I parked in a parking garage and caught a nap, so all I'd have to do is travel a few blocks when my destination's parking garage opened at 7 am.

I drove around downtown Houston looking for a 24-hour parking garage. It took me a few moments to realize what I was looking at-- the homeless were all grouped together in sleeping bags on a particular brightly-lit stretch of sidewalk, very evenly-spaced and organized.

Texas is pretty fortunate-- it had a homeless population of 40k 10 years ago, and a homeless population of 23k back in 2016. New York City, on the other hand, has a homeless population of almost 78k; Los Angeles has a 55k homeless population; and Seattle has almost 12k homeless population, according to a 2017 statistic. San Francisco's homeless population, which has been in the news recently, is only a bit under 7k.

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Interesting article.

Clever presentation.

Very interesting article. I see this all over as I travel a lot.

I've been working on converting some places to this.

Great article.

For the last 10 or so years I thought this was a good idea but no way it would fly zoning-wise. I mean a "real" boarding house: live in host, food available, Sunday dinner, common room. Weekly room cleaning mandatory (and included). Maybe shared bath btw 2 rooms max.

A couple of weeks ago "The Day the Earth Stood Still" was on (the original). If you remember, they were all living in a boarding house. Single mom shared her room with her young son.

Oh, and to add: years ago while visiting Ireland I stayed in a BnB. Owned by a much older woman with help from 2 young women who also lived there. One cleaned and one cooked.

Besides a few night stay, she had longer term boarders. I met two of them over a lovely breakfast. Both were in Dublin on business. All food and util included. One had been staying there for 6 months and the other for nearly a year, with no end in sight.