SROs are BACK!

Back in the 1970s in NYC, Single Room Occupancy apartments were the definition of Urban Blight, and they were basically all gotten rid of due to endless health code violations, insect and rodent infestation, needles in the hallways, and of course as hubs for prostitutes.  Basically, an entrepreneurial Pimp rents an apartment and has a half a dozen flat backers working for him, clocking in a few times a day for a 1 hour slam-bam-thank you m'am liason.  In the 70s, a streetwalker whore cost $20/ fuck, you could get a blow job for $10.  Depending how generous the Pimp was, he would take somewhere between 10-90% of the retail price and pay the rent and have 1 of the girls bring the sheets to the laundry once a month, if they needed it.  lol.  So average $5/hour used 10 hours a day, the room brought in around $1500/month.  In those days, you could rent such a place for $100/mo or even less.  This was of course entry-level pimping and whoring, these were not the guys driving Lincolns and Cadillacs and the hos didn't look like Julia Roberts.

Fast forward to 2024, and it should be no surprise that bringing back these hell holes and re-branding them as "Micro-apartments" is being touted as the "market solution" to the affordable housing problem.  It's really the same concept as the Tiny Home, just putting 100s of them into 1 by providing the absolute minimum amount of space necessary to fit a bed and a toilet/sink to wash up and excrete.

Now, what exactly is the minimum space necessary?  Well, the WHO  has guidelines on this stuff which is supposed to be followed with Prisons, and it's generally considered to be 18 meters², or around 250 sq ft.  This takes into account respiratory issues, sanitation, psychological factors, etc.  Do prisons adhere to this standard?  With the exception of Federal Penitentiary Country Club prisons for white collar criminals in the FSoA, I doubt any country follows these guidelines for prisons.  Any cell that big is going to be shared by 2 people.

So, essentially what we are saying to people is hey, if you get a job and obey all the laws and pay your taxes, you can pay for your own Prison Cell to live in!  Which if it was in a nice, safe, well-kept building might be better than prison, but the slumlords who own and rent such places out aren't known for making sure the elevator works, the building access door lock works, all the hall lights work, etc.  As you might expect, besides the prostitutes, even you regular renters have a rapid turnover rate, they're in town for a seasonal job or just moved from another state to start a new career or of course, just got let out of prison.  Or for old folks and cripples like me, been informed by Medicare after 100 days in a SNIF to recover from some illness or operation they won't pay anymore and you gotta leave IMMEDIATELY.  Fortunately for me, I have so far been deemed sufficiently crippled by Medicare to warrant approval for Long Term Care and not told to GET OUT YESTERDAY yet, which has happened to me on 2 prior occassions, neither of which worked out too well.  In one case I was sent back home to the apt I had continued paying rent on, but without sufficient home health care assistance to take care of myself yet, Ii got worse againg quickly and then lost my leg.  The 2nd time, I gave up the apt because I was hospitalized too long, and they pitched me into an Assisted Care Home which as long time readers know was Dante's 7th Circle of Hell.

In my current SNIF, my room size just about makes the WHO guidelines, but in this type of facility besides your own room, there are 1000s of sq ft of common areas to roll around, and outside garden areas in front and back to sit outside in the good weather.  In most SROs, there are no common areas, just a long narrow hallway with doors to each cell on either side, and a stairwell at both ends and elevator in the middle.  The apartments usually do not have a porch or patio to sit outside and relieve the claustrophobia, and due to fire laws if you have one you're not allowed to smoke or BBQ on them.  There's no relief from the constant state of claustrophobic, and they are too small to have friends over, except perhaps 1 friend to have sex with on your twin bed mattress.  Actually sleeping together ends with one of you on the floor sometime during the night.

If you do have 200 sq ft and it's got windows and you set it up right  with a murphy bed or loft bed with a desk under it, you can make such a place somewhat liveable, but if this is what you are gonna be stuck with living for the rest of your life, it can become pretty depressing even so.  A modern society that can't at least provide a 500 sq ft 1 bedroom apartment for young single workers and old retired ones is not living up to the myth that living in a 1st world industrialized nation is a better life than rural poverty.  Shacks in the Favelas in Rio are bigger than 250 sq feet.

For the recent migrants however who currently are either out on the street, on church floors or in army tents or warehouses with 200 beds laid out on a 10'x10' grid, getting your own SRO with heat and running water is of course a big improvement as a temporary living arragent for a few months-year while you find a job and become assimilated into the rat race.  The thing is, these places aren't going to be temporary for many, they'll be there for years.  In a couple of years they'll be drinking heavily and using drugs.  The lights in the hallways won't be replaced and the eevator won't work half the time.  Same as it was in the 1970s.

https://www.goskagit.com/news/nation/homelessness-affordable-housing-shortage-spark-resurgence-of-single-room-micro-apartments/article_d7124a2c-99ad-58f1-b803-621280ffc64b.html

Micro-apartments are back after nearly a century, as need for affordable housing soars

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