States and cities decimated SROs, Americans' lowest-cost housing option

Types of low-cost housing discussed

• SROs are compared with dorms, micro-apartments, RV living, company housing, YMCA rooms, and even prison-style units.
• Several comments note that many of these options are de facto or explicitly illegal (RV residency, very small units, boarding houses, single-stair buildings).
• Some argue for “just legalize what historically worked” (row houses, 3‑flats, rooming houses) rather than inventing new models.
• Others suggest Japanese-style micro-apartments with private bath/kitchen as preferable to shared-bath SROs.

Who would live in SROs now?

• Historically: migrant male laborers and day workers who mainly “just crashed” in the rooms.
• Proposed current tenants:
  • Young adults (Gen Z/Millennials) stuck with parents, priced out of conventional rentals.
  • Working homeless (often cited as a large share of the unhoused).
  • Some chronically homeless people with addiction or severe mental illness.
• There’s disagreement over how many tenants would be “problem cases” versus simply poor.

Management, tenant rights, and neighborhood conflict

• Many say SROs only work with strict rules: no visitors, strong cleanliness standards, fast removal of disruptive tenants.
• This is framed as clashing with modern tenant protections and anti-discrimination law; some argue you must accept “mild social injustice” or SROs become unmanageable.
• Neighbors and even other homeless people often resist low‑barrier housing due to drugs, crime, and disorder.
• Others counter that demonizing tenants and assuming filth/drugs was exactly the rhetoric that helped kill SROs.

Homelessness, mental health, and “housing first”

• Contentious debate over “housing first”: some local experiences described as a “disaster”; others cite evidence that unconditional housing improves addiction and mental health.
• Strong pushback against stereotypes that mentally ill or addicted people can’t maintain housing; reminder that many such people are employed and stable.
• Several note that homelessness itself drives mental illness/addiction; loss of secure sleep and storage can push people “over the edge.”

Density, geography, and policy

• Big dispute over whether more density and construction lower prices:
  • One side cites Austin/Denver/Tokyo and basic supply‑and‑demand logic.
  • The other claims a “density–price death spiral” where added units attract even more demand; only population decline reduces prices.
• Some argue the true low-cost option is rural/small‑city housing, but others point to job limits and the fact that most people can’t simply WFH.
• Broader themes: calls for more public housing, deregulation of small/cheap units, and criticism that elites and homeowners benefit from keeping supply scarce.