Powerfully written, thank you Ryan. SROs weren’t just sources of housing stability, they were basically the first rung in the latter of economic mobility. We as housers have some work to do sharing the history about just how low the cost of housing at the bottom of the market can be. It’s hard for most to imagine that outside major recessions the U.S. had very little homelessness in the past, even though we spent way less tax money subsidizing housing
I like Alain Bertaud’s justification in Order Without Design for allowing really low quality housing to exist: People know their own consumption preferences best, and they should be free to save money by living in low cost housing so they can choose to spend it on other things they find more valuable
Great article. While I can’t imagine running a SRO- a task for a staff with case managers, on another level, allowing good new fashioned boardinghouses to function properly is another way to allow for single rooms in a large house to be occupied in any number of configurations to shelter more people.
In a boarding house it is up to the resident owner, or manager to create a set of house rules for the co-tenants to live in a place of mutual respect and well-being. That “head of the household” has a responsibility to fairly manage and adjudicate this co-living space and warn and evict when merited a person for unacceptable behavior. Careful screening, and a compassionate, flexible perspective will foster peace and stability for all residents.
The problem is that there is only one set of just cause eviction control rules that cover all rental situations. This effort to create housing stability has the effect of drastically limiting the ability for the person responsible to manage such a rooming house when it comes time to move someone along that is incompatible.
Laws such as this, and an impacted court system are a poor solution to resolve the complexities of people living together. We need to reexamine, experiment, allow for innovation in providing housing, especially to an already stressed population.
I often wonder whether the stricter regulations make it harder for cities to provide low-budget housing. Cities used to have a lot of 'Room to let for 50 cents' kind of rooms, but now they have all closed down, and the men who used to live in them live in tents. Bristol, UK, where I live, has hundreds of homeless people who should be living in low-budget housing.
Powerfully written, thank you Ryan. SROs weren’t just sources of housing stability, they were basically the first rung in the latter of economic mobility. We as housers have some work to do sharing the history about just how low the cost of housing at the bottom of the market can be. It’s hard for most to imagine that outside major recessions the U.S. had very little homelessness in the past, even though we spent way less tax money subsidizing housing
I like Alain Bertaud’s justification in Order Without Design for allowing really low quality housing to exist: People know their own consumption preferences best, and they should be free to save money by living in low cost housing so they can choose to spend it on other things they find more valuable
Thanks, Jeremy! And amen.
Great article. While I can’t imagine running a SRO- a task for a staff with case managers, on another level, allowing good new fashioned boardinghouses to function properly is another way to allow for single rooms in a large house to be occupied in any number of configurations to shelter more people.
In a boarding house it is up to the resident owner, or manager to create a set of house rules for the co-tenants to live in a place of mutual respect and well-being. That “head of the household” has a responsibility to fairly manage and adjudicate this co-living space and warn and evict when merited a person for unacceptable behavior. Careful screening, and a compassionate, flexible perspective will foster peace and stability for all residents.
The problem is that there is only one set of just cause eviction control rules that cover all rental situations. This effort to create housing stability has the effect of drastically limiting the ability for the person responsible to manage such a rooming house when it comes time to move someone along that is incompatible.
Laws such as this, and an impacted court system are a poor solution to resolve the complexities of people living together. We need to reexamine, experiment, allow for innovation in providing housing, especially to an already stressed population.
I often wonder whether the stricter regulations make it harder for cities to provide low-budget housing. Cities used to have a lot of 'Room to let for 50 cents' kind of rooms, but now they have all closed down, and the men who used to live in them live in tents. Bristol, UK, where I live, has hundreds of homeless people who should be living in low-budget housing.