Why we should legalize single-room occupancies everywhere | If you don’t quite have enough money to cover rent for a traditional apartment and you’re living in your Toyota Corolla, suddenly a small space sounds like a major upgrade

> SROs refer to single room occupancy units. While most traditional homes have kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, and various spaces beyond the bedroom, an SRO simply refers to a room for someone to live in.

> Some cities utilize SROs as a tool for low-income housing, and while not super common, it can be effective. But without much creativity at all, we might recognize that just about any college graduate who lived on campus has already lived in a unit like this – perhaps even for several years.

> To many readers, this might sound horrifying. You might even think that people deserve better and shouldn’t be subjected to that. You might not want to live in such a small space.

> But keep in mind that you have a very different perspective than people who might need and want to live in SROs.

> If you don’t quite have enough money to cover rent for a traditional apartment and you’re living in your Toyota Corolla, I promise you that the world looks very different. Suddenly a small space sounds pretty large and like a major upgrade.

> Because of their small size, SROs offer immense potential to house people – for much less money – in cities with high demand. Even for those that may not be growing, there will still be plenty of people who need a cheaper place to live.

> Oregon and Washington are beginning to experiment more with units of this size, often opting to call them “micro-apartments” instead of SROs. The apartments pictured in the previous sections carry this kind of branding. I suppose that probably does sound better!

> As you could tell already, the type of SROs in Washington still offer some pretty nice amenities. While most units have private bathrooms and kitchenettes, there are also shared amenities like larger kitchens that residents typically have access to.

> Here’s the part that really stands out: these units will be priced at around half the rent of a traditional studio in the same area.

> Those cost savings of around 40-50% are significant. They are powerful. Keeping a roof over your head makes it significantly more likely that someone will be able to keep (or find) a job or maintain stability in their lives. This is the basis of the housing-first approach of breaking the cycle of homelessness.

> With units that are smaller and cheaper to build, SROs can be deployed quickly and easily by developers and social housing organizations with ease – so long as they are legal.

!ping YIMBY