Restrictions on house sharing by unrelated roommates

Role of zoning and regulation

• Many comments frame occupancy limits as a classic zoning externality: existing owners use rules to protect their comfort/property values at the expense of others’ housing options.
• Others argue zoning’s original purpose included safety, city planning, and avoiding overloaded infrastructure (parking, schools, sewers), not just repression.
• Several point out that detailed rules (bedroom counts, parking minimums, outlet spacing, etc.) are often arbitrary, hard to justify, and politically sticky once enacted.

Property rights vs neighborhood impact

• Strong “not your yard, not your business” views: if people crowd into a house they own/rent and don’t directly harm neighbors, it should be allowed.
• Counter‑argument: overcrowding can create fire risk, noise, parking spillover, aesthetic degradation, and slum conditions that affect neighbors and city services.
• Some propose targeting specific harms with fire codes, noise and nuisance laws rather than banning shared housing or front‑yard gardens outright.

SROs, roommates, and homelessness

• Many see the destruction of SROs/boarding houses as a major contributor to modern homelessness; if these units had grown with the housing stock, there would be millions more ultra‑cheap rooms.
• Others note that some “transition” or supportive housing projects have been trashed or turned into drug hubs, arguing that “just give them housing” doesn’t work for the most chaotic cases.
• There’s a parallel debate about addiction and severe mental illness: some argue coercive or institutional treatment is necessary; others stress underfunding, abuse in institutions, and the basic moral duty to provide shelter.

International and practical comparisons

• UK “Houses in Multiple Occupation” (HMOs) and similar setups in Europe are cited as normal, regulated forms of shared living for students and young workers; they’re licensed, inspected, and widely used despite funding and enforcement gaps.
• Shared houses and informal subletting (“roommates”) are common in the US too; often technically constrained by rules on unrelated occupants but rarely enforced unless there are other problems.

Law, politics, and discrimination

• Many jurisdictions cap unrelated adults per dwelling (e.g., 3–5), with carve‑outs for families. This blurs with old “brothel laws” and can undermine “found family” households, including LGBTQ+ groups.
• Some see these restrictions as racially and class motivated (single‑family zoning, anti‑SRO rules, occupancy caps); others emphasize slum‑prevention and safety.
• NIMBY vs YIMBY dynamics run through the thread: owners prioritizing stability and values vs tenants and advocates pushing for upzoning, SROs, and roommate legalization as part of “decriminalizing housing.”