SRO means Single Room Occupancy
July 20, 2023 2:57 PM Subscribe
The 2017 documentary Caged Men: Tales From Chicago's Last Remaining SRO Hotels [1h23m] profiles the men who live in and work in the last single room occupancy hotels in Chicago. Men on the tenuous line between housed and unhoused, renting a rapidly-disappearing living situation from long ago that still survives to the modern day.
The push to eliminate SRO and boarding houses is another one of those wonderfully cruel efforts on society.
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:05 PM on July 20, 2023 [16 favorites]
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:05 PM on July 20, 2023 [16 favorites]
Seems like permitting new SROs is a great way to combat homelessness.
posted by vorpal bunny at 3:15 PM on July 20, 2023 [22 favorites]
posted by vorpal bunny at 3:15 PM on July 20, 2023 [22 favorites]
Yeah, fuck zoning, allow building dense, cheap housing (with adequate facilities and standards, of course). What used to be touted as a way to avoid slums is now just one of the tools of gentrification.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:29 PM on July 20, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:29 PM on July 20, 2023 [9 favorites]
I think somehow there's this weird moral panic about something like SRO housing or even dense multi-family housing like low-cost high-rises, because "it breeds crime and drug abuse and violence" when really the same amount of crime and drug abuse and domestic violence probably is taking place in the suburbs, but without any shared walls no neighbors are reporting it.
posted by hippybear at 3:32 PM on July 20, 2023 [20 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:32 PM on July 20, 2023 [20 favorites]
I think you're right, hippybear. At least here in LA, the SROs and Boarding Houses that used to be all over the place would be an alternative to the number of severe homeless encampments there are around the city. (I think the last survey pegged the LA number at around 50K unhoused and only getting worse)
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:39 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:39 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
The Chicago Tribune recently ran a profile of a widely noticed, eccentric but famously well-dressed street vendor who was killed when a mentally ill man set him on fire while he slept on the street in a random attack.
He had for a long time lived in an SRO, but was basically forced onto the street after virtually all the SROs closed.
posted by smelendez at 3:44 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
He had for a long time lived in an SRO, but was basically forced onto the street after virtually all the SROs closed.
posted by smelendez at 3:44 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think there's also a motivation or possibly excuse that people *ought* to have something better than a SRO, while ignoring that an SRO is a great deal better than nothing.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 4:04 PM on July 20, 2023 [30 favorites]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 4:04 PM on July 20, 2023 [30 favorites]
In Sydney, boarding houses (our name for single occupancy units) both private and supported by social housing providers, are a long standing dwelling type, some of the older ones existing since the post-WWII housing shortage. Yes, they are completely essential as an element in a diverse housing market. The planning system has policies to encourage new ones, especially ones that meet current building standards and are located near transport.
Here’s the vicious irony though. Contemporary developers of them have recognised that single occupancy units with those characteristics (standards compliance, nearness to amenities) mean also that they are quite a desirable good for relatively high wage earners in a housing shortage. The yield tends to be greater, for a landlord, than traditional rental dwellings. So they’re marketed as ‘luxury single units’ or ‘maisonettes’ and have rents comparable to share housing or more, and tend to displace existing boarding house tenants. Can’t win!
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:19 PM on July 20, 2023 [14 favorites]
Here’s the vicious irony though. Contemporary developers of them have recognised that single occupancy units with those characteristics (standards compliance, nearness to amenities) mean also that they are quite a desirable good for relatively high wage earners in a housing shortage. The yield tends to be greater, for a landlord, than traditional rental dwellings. So they’re marketed as ‘luxury single units’ or ‘maisonettes’ and have rents comparable to share housing or more, and tend to displace existing boarding house tenants. Can’t win!
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:19 PM on July 20, 2023 [14 favorites]
When I moved to Chicago in 2012 my neighborhood, East Lakeview, had 6 SRO buildings within walking distance of my apartment. It now has zero. The final one just shut down. All the buildings have been renovated and turned into rental apartments that are about $2K a month.
posted by srboisvert at 5:23 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 5:23 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
hard to imagine the economics work out -- the US has a coming reckoning re: urbanization, we've made it so impossible to build anything new that any truly urban area in the US will eventually be "too big to fail", i.e. encased in plexiglass and beyond anybody's reach
ironic in a country that, as a rule, hates cities
posted by matjus at 5:44 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
ironic in a country that, as a rule, hates cities
posted by matjus at 5:44 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
hard to imagine the economics work out -- the US has a coming reckoning re: urbanization, we've made it so impossible to build anything new that any truly urban area in the US will eventually be "too big to fail", i.e. encased in plexiglass and beyond anybody's reach
There is plenty of building going on in Chicago. An incredible amount in fact. Just it is almost entirely massive luxury apartment buildings going for at least $3000+/month.
posted by srboisvert at 5:59 PM on July 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
There is plenty of building going on in Chicago. An incredible amount in fact. Just it is almost entirely massive luxury apartment buildings going for at least $3000+/month.
posted by srboisvert at 5:59 PM on July 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
I wrote a long comment about the state of things then I deleted it. It's bad bad bad.
SSI is about 900 a month now, but a fair market studio ( which is 40% of gross rent for an regular apartment) is over 1000 usd here.
Subsidized housing is great, but there is just not enough of it and it's so so so hard to get. I've met multiple people with housing vouchers who lost them when they couldn't find an apartment that met the standards of section 8 and was in the appropriate rent range.
These SROs are usually running about 50 perent of SSI while a Subsidized generally runs around 30 percent.
Bless the SRO operators and all that they do. SRHAC does good work in this area.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:10 PM on July 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
SSI is about 900 a month now, but a fair market studio ( which is 40% of gross rent for an regular apartment) is over 1000 usd here.
Subsidized housing is great, but there is just not enough of it and it's so so so hard to get. I've met multiple people with housing vouchers who lost them when they couldn't find an apartment that met the standards of section 8 and was in the appropriate rent range.
These SROs are usually running about 50 perent of SSI while a Subsidized generally runs around 30 percent.
Bless the SRO operators and all that they do. SRHAC does good work in this area.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:10 PM on July 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
Working in a small SNF, we could easily discharge at least a person a month to a wheelchair-accessible SRO. Lacking that option, some end up staying in care facilities when they don't really need to, or discharging to really problematic situations because it's the least-bad we have. Sometimes that's a tent.
posted by DebetEsse at 6:24 PM on July 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by DebetEsse at 6:24 PM on July 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
I mean, just allowing accessory dwelling units on single family lots would double the density of housing units That's one of the things I find so goddamned infuriating about people who are against adding housing because it would change the character of the neighborhood or whatever other bullshit they come up with. It's perfectly possible to keep your streetscape and also build relatively inexpensive housing. Plus it's good for existing homeowners who now have space to rent out!
posted by wierdo at 6:41 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by wierdo at 6:41 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
> Nancy Lebovitz: "I think there's also a motivation or possibly excuse that people *ought* to have something better than a SRO, while ignoring that an SRO is a great deal better than nothing."
One of the most clarifying things for me that I read about homelessness was an observation by a columnist for my local alt-weekly who pointed out that there have been historically three main ways that people who cannot afford the usual market-rate housing have found housing: 1) government provided/supported housing, 2) shanty towns/favelas/squat settlements/etc..., and 3) sub-standard and/or non-standard housing. In the US, #1 is mostly going to be Section 8 housing (which I think is now mainly a voucher program rather than big housing projects) and #2 corresponds to things like the tent encampments found in many large cities. As for #3, that corresponds to things like slums (i.e.: housing in too poor condition to reasonably rent at market rates) but I would also put non-standard setups like SROs as well as modern micro-apartments in this category. And while I certainly wouldn't advocate for building code changes to make more slums & tenements, I think there should/could probably be a place for SROs in the overall housing picture, if not for the general stigma about this kind of non-standard housing.
posted by mhum at 6:55 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
One of the most clarifying things for me that I read about homelessness was an observation by a columnist for my local alt-weekly who pointed out that there have been historically three main ways that people who cannot afford the usual market-rate housing have found housing: 1) government provided/supported housing, 2) shanty towns/favelas/squat settlements/etc..., and 3) sub-standard and/or non-standard housing. In the US, #1 is mostly going to be Section 8 housing (which I think is now mainly a voucher program rather than big housing projects) and #2 corresponds to things like the tent encampments found in many large cities. As for #3, that corresponds to things like slums (i.e.: housing in too poor condition to reasonably rent at market rates) but I would also put non-standard setups like SROs as well as modern micro-apartments in this category. And while I certainly wouldn't advocate for building code changes to make more slums & tenements, I think there should/could probably be a place for SROs in the overall housing picture, if not for the general stigma about this kind of non-standard housing.
posted by mhum at 6:55 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's only "non-standard" because it was zoned out of existence, along with boarding houses and the like. Collectively, they are a whole set of housing types that, in the US, mostly don't exist anymore. But a much wider variety of furnished group housing types used to be common. A while back I read/re-read a bunch of classic noir books, and was struck by how everyone was living in what were basically SROs, just sometimes nice, high-end ones.
Two apartments ago, I lived across the street from a subsidized SRO (the kind with staff and services on site); the apartment after that, I lived near a tent encampment. The SRO was a much better neighbor, and anyone who doesn't want one in their neighborhood should be given the option of a tent encampment instead.
Cities starting to allow ADUs is a great thing, but there's definitely a place for furnished group housing, too. The trend recently has been for the development of "tiny home villages," which also seems like a good piece to have in the mix, but those can't compete with the density of an urban multistory SRO in terms of offering housing to more people.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:14 PM on July 20, 2023 [17 favorites]
Two apartments ago, I lived across the street from a subsidized SRO (the kind with staff and services on site); the apartment after that, I lived near a tent encampment. The SRO was a much better neighbor, and anyone who doesn't want one in their neighborhood should be given the option of a tent encampment instead.
Cities starting to allow ADUs is a great thing, but there's definitely a place for furnished group housing, too. The trend recently has been for the development of "tiny home villages," which also seems like a good piece to have in the mix, but those can't compete with the density of an urban multistory SRO in terms of offering housing to more people.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:14 PM on July 20, 2023 [17 favorites]
Here in Seattle, where we have a huge encampment issue, all I see from local media, is how hard it is to get homeless people into any kind of housing. Because it seems like most of the homeless people have other issues than housing. Mostly, mental illness and drug addiction.
And it's hard to argue with that, as most of the people I see are clearly mentally ill, and/or smoking fentanyl, (given all the aluminum foil near their encampments that I see). And shelters mostly don't allow for using. And I don't know how we can deal with this.
Who wants to live in a multi-unit building with people who are not well? Which is often cited as why it is so hard to house these people. Thanks Reagan.
And of course, buying a single family home lot and putting up four nice condos that can sell for a million each doesn't help, thanks capitalism.
Does seem interesting that when all the focus was on tenements like Cabrini-Green were the focus, now it's encampments. It's like people are realizing it's not just gangs and black people causing all the issues. I guess we have progressed as a society?
I wish I had an answer for how to help these folks, but given the current state of America, I don't see how that is going to happen
posted by Windopaene at 8:24 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
And it's hard to argue with that, as most of the people I see are clearly mentally ill, and/or smoking fentanyl, (given all the aluminum foil near their encampments that I see). And shelters mostly don't allow for using. And I don't know how we can deal with this.
Who wants to live in a multi-unit building with people who are not well? Which is often cited as why it is so hard to house these people. Thanks Reagan.
And of course, buying a single family home lot and putting up four nice condos that can sell for a million each doesn't help, thanks capitalism.
Does seem interesting that when all the focus was on tenements like Cabrini-Green were the focus, now it's encampments. It's like people are realizing it's not just gangs and black people causing all the issues. I guess we have progressed as a society?
I wish I had an answer for how to help these folks, but given the current state of America, I don't see how that is going to happen
posted by Windopaene at 8:24 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Agree that tiny homes seem solid. And we are doing a bunch of those here. But, there have been issues with those as well. And you still need land to put those tiny homes on. How much land is there in San Francisco for these? Ugh.
posted by Windopaene at 8:27 PM on July 20, 2023
posted by Windopaene at 8:27 PM on July 20, 2023
A while back I read/re-read a bunch of classic noir books, and was struck by how everyone was living in what were basically SROs
Dickens has characters living in boarding houses, too. Basically a dry flat, bare furniture necessities, washbasin, landlord providing meals that are often key to the plot, both the meals and the landlords.
posted by hippybear at 8:27 PM on July 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
Dickens has characters living in boarding houses, too. Basically a dry flat, bare furniture necessities, washbasin, landlord providing meals that are often key to the plot, both the meals and the landlords.
posted by hippybear at 8:27 PM on July 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
Ever since the days when I was… doing the kind of business that might require one to hang out in SROs, I have been certain that a huge cause of the homelessness crisis is the loss of the bottom tier of housing. I feel like most people don’t understand the several rungs of living situation above the very bottom, and that they are definitely preferable to the very bottom. Which leaves me taking almost a Libertarian position on what sort of housing ought to be legal to build and rent - though of course the Libertarians don’t like to talk about the role of the market in dismantling the cheap housing that still exists.
posted by atoxyl at 8:32 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 8:32 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yeah, those "pod hotels" were big back in the early cyberpunk days.
posted by Windopaene at 8:32 PM on July 20, 2023
posted by Windopaene at 8:32 PM on July 20, 2023
In the 40’s, my mother moved to Denver and lived in a boarding house for a few years. She had a shared room in a mansion, and the landlady provided meals. All the tenants were women, and felt safe there. My understanding is that most boarding houses were single-sex.
In the same time period, my husband’s family ran a boarding house on the east coast. It’s too bad they’ve gone away, as they provided income for the building owner, and safe, secure lodging for the tenants.
posted by dbmcd at 8:35 PM on July 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
In the same time period, my husband’s family ran a boarding house on the east coast. It’s too bad they’ve gone away, as they provided income for the building owner, and safe, secure lodging for the tenants.
posted by dbmcd at 8:35 PM on July 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
An aside: it was very common for boarding houses in the West in the era before WWII to be run by single middle-aged to elderly women or widows, who owned a house but had no other means of generating income. Women in that situation would take in one or more lodgers, where some level of domestic work (cooking/laundry/cleaning) was part of the housing cost, which is a housing mode that has not really survived the 20thC.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 8:35 PM on July 20, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 8:35 PM on July 20, 2023 [7 favorites]
Pod hotels and pod apartments are, according to YouTube videos I've watched recently, still not uncommon on Japan.
posted by hippybear at 8:36 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 8:36 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
It also often upsets me when I see “exposes” on subsidized SROs - it’s dirty and people have died of overdoses in there! - because it seems like such an example of how, as soon as somebody steps up to take responsibility for something, it’s somebody’s problem. Whereas if people are dying of overdoses on the street, well that’s nobody’s problem in particular.
posted by atoxyl at 8:38 PM on July 20, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 8:38 PM on July 20, 2023 [13 favorites]
And to reiterate something I said earlier, there is ZERO outrage about a suburban house that has someone overdose in it. That's more sympathy.
posted by hippybear at 8:41 PM on July 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:41 PM on July 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
I’m about halfway through the documentary and felt compelled to look up the Hotel Tokyo and surprise it’s now a Freehand Hotel with a testimonial about how it “Celebrates the city’s Midwestern heritage…” with no mention of how many low-income people it displaced. Gross.
On my first trip to Chicago I was googling for restaurants and discovered Coco’s Famous Fried Lobster and I was intrigued. I’ve been to the Ewing building! The lobster was underwhelming.
posted by bendy at 10:09 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
On my first trip to Chicago I was googling for restaurants and discovered Coco’s Famous Fried Lobster and I was intrigued. I’ve been to the Ewing building! The lobster was underwhelming.
posted by bendy at 10:09 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
SRO: A New Frontier or A Step to the Rear?
Jim Green & Monica Hay
January 26, 1994
posted by monkeymike at 10:29 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Jim Green & Monica Hay
January 26, 1994
posted by monkeymike at 10:29 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
most of the people I see are clearly mentally ill, and/or smoking fentanyl ... And shelters mostly don't allow for using. And I don't know how we can deal with this.
Who wants to live in a multi-unit building with people who are not well?
I'm just gunna put it to you that very often the drug use comes after the housing failure, because a bag of something to knock you out is a hell of a lot cheaper than finding a room, and works very well to make you forget you are unhoused.
I'm also gunna say that if you don't have a mental health problem when you are evicted, it's pretty common to develop them sleeping rough. Even small issues are exacerbated.
There are absolutely people who wind up on the street because of these two factors. But don't for a minute think that the damage of being unhoused can lead to maladaptive coping mechanisms like alcoholism and drug use and the sort of despair that eats your mind from the inside out.
posted by Jilder at 10:51 PM on July 20, 2023 [17 favorites]
Who wants to live in a multi-unit building with people who are not well?
I'm just gunna put it to you that very often the drug use comes after the housing failure, because a bag of something to knock you out is a hell of a lot cheaper than finding a room, and works very well to make you forget you are unhoused.
I'm also gunna say that if you don't have a mental health problem when you are evicted, it's pretty common to develop them sleeping rough. Even small issues are exacerbated.
There are absolutely people who wind up on the street because of these two factors. But don't for a minute think that the damage of being unhoused can lead to maladaptive coping mechanisms like alcoholism and drug use and the sort of despair that eats your mind from the inside out.
posted by Jilder at 10:51 PM on July 20, 2023 [17 favorites]
UCSF released a new study on homelessness in California last month.
The median duration of homelessness is 22 months.
72% have experienced physical violence (at some point), and a quarter overall have experienced sexual violence—43% for cis-women and 74% for trans/non-binary.
82% "reported a period in their life where they experienced a serious mental health condition".
32% were leaseholders or mortgage payers, with a median of 10 days of notice before eviction. 49% were not, with a median of 1 day's notice. 19% entered homelessness from an institution, from which the vast majority had no transition support.
But the primary direct cause of homelessness was not mental illness, it was not having enough money to pay for housing. "the median monthly household income [in the six months prior to homelessness] was $960 … Seventy percent believed that a monthly rental subsidy of $300-$500 would have prevented their homelessness for a sustained period."
posted by PresidentOfDinosaurs at 11:23 PM on July 20, 2023 [12 favorites]
[E]ight counties that represent the state’s diversity … a representative sample of adults … [we] administered questionnaires to nearly 3,200 participants … representative sample … weighted data to provide statewide estimates … [conducted] 365 in-depth interviewsMy summary of the summary:
The median duration of homelessness is 22 months.
72% have experienced physical violence (at some point), and a quarter overall have experienced sexual violence—43% for cis-women and 74% for trans/non-binary.
82% "reported a period in their life where they experienced a serious mental health condition".
32% were leaseholders or mortgage payers, with a median of 10 days of notice before eviction. 49% were not, with a median of 1 day's notice. 19% entered homelessness from an institution, from which the vast majority had no transition support.
But the primary direct cause of homelessness was not mental illness, it was not having enough money to pay for housing. "the median monthly household income [in the six months prior to homelessness] was $960 … Seventy percent believed that a monthly rental subsidy of $300-$500 would have prevented their homelessness for a sustained period."
posted by PresidentOfDinosaurs at 11:23 PM on July 20, 2023 [12 favorites]
I've seen a review of something (a book?) that I can't find making that very point-- there are relatively poor cities that don't have a homelessness problem because the price of housing isn't high. Has anyone seen this?
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 12:08 AM on July 21, 2023
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 12:08 AM on July 21, 2023
I'm curious if anyone else here has stayed at one? I did a few years back by mistake, though it was gentrified. I had booked a room at the Bowery in NYC for like $200 a night; i did not read the reviews to know that it was a gussied up SRO; complete with shared bathroom and chicken wire ceiling.
Clean enough but very noisy of course.
posted by msiebler at 6:30 AM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Clean enough but very noisy of course.
posted by msiebler at 6:30 AM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
I lived in SROs in my college days. The worst were the ones with 'Christian' management. Otherwise less possessions, less space to clean, and even people around. Worked well.
For the broader problem of housing, I myself visualize groups of brick tiny homes, with utilities set up to minimize costs. Brick, because don't want fires to be an issue.
posted by Goofyy at 7:00 AM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
For the broader problem of housing, I myself visualize groups of brick tiny homes, with utilities set up to minimize costs. Brick, because don't want fires to be an issue.
posted by Goofyy at 7:00 AM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Wasn't there a rash of think pieces not too long ago about essentially glorified dormitories being marketed to young tech workers? They were all carefully named and marketed to make sure nobody actually recognized the boarding house model.
posted by Karmakaze at 7:47 AM on July 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Karmakaze at 7:47 AM on July 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
I'm curious if anyone else here has stayed at one? I did a few years back by mistake, though it was gentrified. I had booked a room at the Bowery in NYC for like $200 a night; i did not read the reviews to know that it was a gussied up SRO; complete with shared bathroom and chicken wire ceiling.
Clean enough but very noisy of course.
I did the same thing, but in Europe as a tourist. I booked something cheap without really looking at it, and it turned out to be an SRO with a mix of long-term residents and ultra-cheap backpackers. The "rooms" were more like cubicles, since the walls didn't go all the way to the ceiling. Loud and kind of rough around the edges, but still far, far better than sleeping rough.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:53 AM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
Clean enough but very noisy of course.
I did the same thing, but in Europe as a tourist. I booked something cheap without really looking at it, and it turned out to be an SRO with a mix of long-term residents and ultra-cheap backpackers. The "rooms" were more like cubicles, since the walls didn't go all the way to the ceiling. Loud and kind of rough around the edges, but still far, far better than sleeping rough.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:53 AM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
I stayed at a hotel in Seattle that used to be basically SRO housing for fishermen when they were a big part of the economy there. The rooms had a sink, but the toilets and showers were shared and down the hall. Really amazing showers, though. I'd stay there again, now that I know what I'd be getting into.
posted by hippybear at 8:04 AM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:04 AM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
You can see one of these places in the Blues Brothers - the Plymouth. Despite the "dark side of downtown" framing of the article, there's good info about how these places evolved, the problems, and also some discussion of the loss of affordable places like this. If you remember the movie, Elwood sits in his little room making dry white toast, and there's a community room where a bunch of residents hang out and play cards and such. It's sad that as a society we think the streets are a better place for people.
“How often does the train go by?” asks Jake. “So often you won’t even notice it,” Elwood responds.
In the movie, Carrie Fisher blows it up with a rocket launcher; in real life, it's developers and capitalism.
Also from the article:
The number of SRO hotels dropped from 300 with 30,000 rooms in the early 1970s to 200 with 15,000 rooms in the late ‘90s, according to the Single Room Operators Association.
“Nobody said they were the greatest, but they were affordable,” said Ed Shurna, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:00 AM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
“How often does the train go by?” asks Jake. “So often you won’t even notice it,” Elwood responds.
In the movie, Carrie Fisher blows it up with a rocket launcher; in real life, it's developers and capitalism.
Also from the article:
The number of SRO hotels dropped from 300 with 30,000 rooms in the early 1970s to 200 with 15,000 rooms in the late ‘90s, according to the Single Room Operators Association.
“Nobody said they were the greatest, but they were affordable,” said Ed Shurna, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:00 AM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
So THAT'S what the Madison band "Your Mom SRO" means.
(carry on)
posted by symbioid at 10:25 AM on July 21, 2023
(carry on)
posted by symbioid at 10:25 AM on July 21, 2023
The push to eliminate SRO and boarding houses is another one of those wonderfully cruel efforts on society.
There was one across from the Post Office bus stop on 3rd and Union that one or two beer or wine bottle holding old farts in rank tops leaned out of windows of rooms lit by one light bulb hanging from the ceiling. It was like Edward Hopper at his most Ashcanny. But then there was a high fatality fire in one here and most all the SROs were shut down thereafter. After which (and then later compounded by Reagan's election), homeless alcoholic men first appeared as fixtures on downtown.sidewalks.
In the last few years here, Metro Bus first erected all these fancy enclosed glass and steel bus stops on the length of Broadway. Which instantly became dyi homeless shelters and then saw their glass removed or were outright torn down to their benches thereafter. The saying With what little wisdom the world is ruled comes to mind. Also, the phrase senseless cruel...
.
posted by y2karl at 12:17 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
There was one across from the Post Office bus stop on 3rd and Union that one or two beer or wine bottle holding old farts in rank tops leaned out of windows of rooms lit by one light bulb hanging from the ceiling. It was like Edward Hopper at his most Ashcanny. But then there was a high fatality fire in one here and most all the SROs were shut down thereafter. After which (and then later compounded by Reagan's election), homeless alcoholic men first appeared as fixtures on downtown.sidewalks.
In the last few years here, Metro Bus first erected all these fancy enclosed glass and steel bus stops on the length of Broadway. Which instantly became dyi homeless shelters and then saw their glass removed or were outright torn down to their benches thereafter. The saying With what little wisdom the world is ruled comes to mind. Also, the phrase senseless cruel...
.
posted by y2karl at 12:17 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
In the US, #1 is mostly going to be Section 8 housing (which I think is now mainly a voucher program rather than big housing projects)
That's actually definitely true, in my understanding: Section 8 of the 1937 Housing Act is vouchers for private sector rentals. Its expansion--to just about two million currently--was a massive privatization of the public housing function.
I believe real public housing is actually provisioned in Section 9 of the same legislation. It barely exists any longer. There are about a million units nationwide.
posted by kensington314 at 12:29 PM on July 21, 2023
That's actually definitely true, in my understanding: Section 8 of the 1937 Housing Act is vouchers for private sector rentals. Its expansion--to just about two million currently--was a massive privatization of the public housing function.
I believe real public housing is actually provisioned in Section 9 of the same legislation. It barely exists any longer. There are about a million units nationwide.
posted by kensington314 at 12:29 PM on July 21, 2023
This Los Angeles Times article on possible market solutions to housing seems to be a good overview of the different funding mechanisms and problems in the space. We still have SRO housing here in downtown Los Angeles, and it certainly has its share of problems. (One major provider is under receivership because the costs of their maintaining their aging buildings overwhelmed their revenue, and another new player is going through growing pains as the reality of actually spending money sets in.)
What I am reminded about is something my mom described when she attended the parent orientation for my brother starting college (circa 2000) — the person from the school leading the session asked the parents to raise their hands if they shared a bedroom with siblings when they grew up, and most did. Then they asked them to raise their hands if their kids shared a bedroom. Most of the hands went down. And that’s why the parents could expect drama about housing as their kids adjusted to sharing rooms with someone else.
It’s one thing to say that we should have more SRO-style housing, but the norms have shifted. Sharing bathrooms, kitchens, and other living spaces isn’t as common as it once was. Maybe it should be, but that’s not going to be a quick process.
posted by jimw at 5:14 PM on July 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
What I am reminded about is something my mom described when she attended the parent orientation for my brother starting college (circa 2000) — the person from the school leading the session asked the parents to raise their hands if they shared a bedroom with siblings when they grew up, and most did. Then they asked them to raise their hands if their kids shared a bedroom. Most of the hands went down. And that’s why the parents could expect drama about housing as their kids adjusted to sharing rooms with someone else.
It’s one thing to say that we should have more SRO-style housing, but the norms have shifted. Sharing bathrooms, kitchens, and other living spaces isn’t as common as it once was. Maybe it should be, but that’s not going to be a quick process.
posted by jimw at 5:14 PM on July 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
The ongoing series by Capital & Main and ProPublica on illegal conversions of residential hotels to boutique hotels in Los Angeles is also related to this.
posted by jimw at 5:17 PM on July 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by jimw at 5:17 PM on July 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
I just spent a couple of nights at the West Side Y in Manhattan, which is basically an SRO. Bedrooms without a single frill, bathroom down the hall. It cost something like $120/night for a room with a bunk bed (and a bigger closet than any in my home, which was built in 1916--a pretty interesting observation.)
One of the rooms on our hall was almost certainly someone's residence. A grocery trolley was parked outside the door and a few times the door was propped open a little so I could see a lot of possessions inside.
posted by Sublimity at 3:34 AM on July 24, 2023
One of the rooms on our hall was almost certainly someone's residence. A grocery trolley was parked outside the door and a few times the door was propped open a little so I could see a lot of possessions inside.
posted by Sublimity at 3:34 AM on July 24, 2023
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