St. Francis House (SFH), the shelter where I volunteer, has 56 SRO apartments. SRO's are single room occupancy units, basically a private bedroom with shared bathroom and kitchen. Residents pay one-third of their income for rent, and can get breakfast and lunch for free, plus draw on other SFH resources (clothing, health care, counseling, general support).
The rooms aren't large. They remind me of the single room I had in graduate housing at Columbia University 50+ years ago. A bed. A desk. A chair. A few addon items. But they're clean, safe, private, and have doors that lock. If you've been on the streets, getting a room at SFH is cause for celebration.
For years, SFH was a day shelter-only, and when the SRO's were opened, the thought was that people would live in them for six months max. Many people do transition to fully independent living, but there are some folks who I believe have been there from the beginning in 1997. Certainly, there are some who've been there at least ten years. They're used to it. It's there community. And rental housing - especially affordable housing - is at a premium in the Boston area.
As it is in NYC.
Where a 77-square-foot apartment in lower Manhattan has been listed for $2,350 a month. (It was initially going for $1,975, but what with a bidding war...) There are 26 such units in the building.
NYC used to be loaded with SRO's. Between 1955 and 1995, the numbers plummeted from 200,000 to 40,000, and I'm betting that in the nearly 30 years since, the number has dwindled a lot further.
Boston used to be loaded with SRO's, too. They weren't great, but they were places where minimum wage workers - day laborers, dish boys - could afford to live. A billion years ago, my husband lived in a building that was next to an SRO building. Now long converted to splosh condos, the place was a complete dump, peopled with a loud and colorful brigade of tenants. (One time when we were walking by, there was an ambulance out front. A neighbor who was also walking by sardonically remarked, "Pick up or delivery?")
But an SRO going for more than $2k per month is not aimed at day laborers and fast food workers.
That 77-square-foot stunner rents for nearly $30K a year. You need to be making serious coin (or have serious mommy-daddy money) to pay that amount of rent.
Sure, 77-square-feet is bigger than, say, a coffin (approx. 14 square feet), but still...
I'm all for SRO's.
At SFH, there are housing specialists continually on the hunt for affordable housing for our guests. Even an SRO is a godsend.
Imagine sleeping on a cot in a shelter, in a room with maybe 100 other people? Think of the night noise, especially in a population where many suffer from mental illness or substance abuse disorder. Think of dragging your possessions around with you all day - because overnight shelters are just that. You leave in the morning - and, in Boston, many of the folks thus dispossessed find their way to SFH - and go back in late afternoon, queueing up to get a bed for the night. Others avoid the night shelters entirely, choosing to sleep rough.
Imagine the day you get the key to the place you can now call home. A place you can leave your stuff. Where you can sit and read a book, or watch TV while snacking on popcorn your just popped in the kitchen. Where you can roll over and stay in bed if you feel like it.
When people finally get housing - and, no, it doesn't work out every time for everybody - they are ecstatic. And we are, too, when they let us know.
But $2,350 a month?
I don't care how desirable the neighborhood is, this is just plain awful.
How long before everyone but the wealthiest are priced out of living in cities? Not just those minimum wage workers, but folks with good jobs. New graduates. People that used to be part of the middle class.
Is all this sustainable?
Sure, I sit here on my privileged perch, living in one of the nicest areas of my city. A small one-bedroom around here (if you could find one) would probably go for about the same rent as the NYC SRO. Which is crazy enough.
But for 77 square feet of living space? OMG doesn't quite do it.
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Source: Daily Mail
Meanwhile, Happy Juneteenth.
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