There used to be boarding houses and other suboptimal living conditions that were much much better than being homeless. We need to build more Studio Apartments, SROs, and micro-apartments with very cheap rent; these can help keep people on their feet when they endure financial hardship, and allow single people at lower incomes to keep their housing costs at <25% of their income.
It's not really the quality of the housing that matters. It's having a permanent address, access to a bathroom, a lock on the door, a place to keep things safe, and the stability of knowing that your housing situation is secure for the time being so long that you can come up with $200 a month. You have homelessness and then you have a studio apartment $600/month- we need to have some more options in between the two.
You are right. Also motels that used to be an option are being bought up and converted to "boutique hotels" and then they charge 100's per night, again pricing out the lower income people.
One problem I see with that is that malls are often very isolated, surrounded by huge swaths of concrete parking. Not exactly the best environment for people with already-reduced mobility. So it'd have to be in conjunction with a massive investment to develop that parking into more housing, parks, shops, etc.
Put in a daycare, basketball courts and similar-tennis maybe, allow food trucks, have raised bed community gardening and the like to make it be a desirable and convenient place for young(er) people to go?
That's actually the intent. The ideal conversion is to turn them into "mixed-use" buildings that have both apartments and stores and medical facilities so they become like small walkable villages. Some of the concepts are pretty neat.
I'm not denying that part. But what I'm saying is that even if the mall itself is converted to mixed use, you're still stuck with hundreds if not thousands of empty useless asphalted parking spots in the immediate surroundings.
They probably could reduce the # of parking spaces and put in green space as well. They actually do plan green space into mall parking. I read an article that Costco actually specifies more green space into their parking than other retailers.
They probably could reduce the # of parking spaces and put in green space as well.
...That's exactly what I said in the first place. But the process of removing asphalt and converting it to healthy soil + greenery is extremely expensive. Let alone for surface areas as large as mall parking lots.
They actually do plan green space into mall parking. I read an article that Costco actually specifies more green space into their parking than other retailers.
That's all well and good but hundreds of parking spots is still hundreds of parking spots, regardless of a few extra trees and flowers.
They did this in Providence, the old mall downtown has micro studios. Seems to be working, although the prices are not as good as OPs. https://www.arcadeprovidence.com/
Is this a joke? Look at how small that fridge is. How are you supposed to clean anything in that disgrace of a sink? Where do you even cook? This isn't worth more than $150/mo as a place you use every couple weeks to sleep because it might be convenient?
Edit: I saw further down someone said something about boarding houses being "much better than homeless" and now I can see it as something for someone with limited assistance income and whatnot. People deserve better than this, but it is something I guess.
This area is littered with universities. If you would have given me the chance to live here, on my own, instead of renting a room in a shared (dirty) house, you bet I would have preferred this. I was eating at school and work, very limited meals at home.
This would be cool. Because with enough people you could probably still keep some of the mall attractions open, like a food court. Could also turn some of the anchor stores that may be a challenge to make in apartments because of their size into places for other things like basketball courts, tennis courts, a walking track etc.
Thatâs an excellent idea, the thoroughfares would make great community/common areas. Especially with so many of them having had skylights and water features built into the design
I lived in one in Connecticut! I used to ask locals who were around when it was a mall if they knew what store I lived in. Never could get a concrete answer.
I think the logistics of converting office buildings is a bit harder, because the plumbing and such isn't really designed to support hundreds of individual apartments, and the layouts probably require much more redesign ie knocking out walls and rearranging them. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can chime in.
Meh you could make it dorm styled shared bathrooms and kitchen. Fridge space would be a bitch. Now that I think about anything kitchen would be a bitch. But for 600 a month total not too bad.
In the city I live in there's a couple buildings that developers wanted to turn into apartments, one with the idea of creating affordable housing in which all the apartments would be below market rate. The city has stopped both of them from happening. The mayor's reasoning for opposing the affordable housing one was because too many of the apartments would be below market rate, he wants 20% to be below market rate and 80% to be market rate or more.
So their plan was to finance part of the project through the Illinois Housing Developmental Authority because they offer lower interest loans and grants, but without the entire complex being below market they don't qualify for that.
If the businesses that already own the buildings just converted the office space to living space and offered it to their employees then the employees would get the work from home they want and the businesses would get the indentured servants they really desire. Everybody wins?
Until you realize that your neighbors are the same annoying co-workers that you want to get away from, your kids can't go to the local schools that you want them to, your new "home" is inconveniently far away from your familiar shops and restaurants, and you don't dare complain about problems to your "landlord" for fear it'll affect your next salary review...
In California, many of our state government buildings will be converted to housing like this. I hope they make it accessible for all so we can avoid "ghettos" that exist in all of those type of projects in the US.
The issues with that is plumbing, walls/soundproofing, and worst of all with wide office floors, at least half the apartments would not have any natural light from windows.
imagine if your office closed so that everyone could work from home, and then you move into a newly converted apartment in the same space the office was in
Pretty soon theyâll have us live where we work and work where we live. âFine, you want to work from home? Good luck ending your work day when we convert this office buildingâŚâ
That would be a bit harder and quite costly for alot of buildings since you'd have to create rooms as apposed to schools which already have the rooms built in.
Nice idea but I think it would be to costly a transformation to be seen as viable
I have never had such a torn reaction to a post before. On one hand itâs funny as hell because I know itâs true and on the other hand itâs sad as hell because I know itâs true
This has already happened in Chicago. An old school was converted into âluxury loftsâ with a studio starting at $1500 a month. Before they renovated the school, there was a large homeless encampment directly in front of the building. They had been there for years. As soon as the renovations were completed, the entire encampment was taken down, and all of the people living there were pushed out to who knows where. Now where they were living is a community garden (which is nice, but I also feel for the people who were dislocated even further).
Thereâs a housing crisis in my city and theyâve turned a few abandoned schools into affordable housing like this. Theyâre in the process of turning the old high school into affordable housing right now. Theyâre also turning the old county jail into apartments but theyâre going to be market price.
My city is working on turning the old abandoned Cotton Gin Shop into apartments, unfortunately they will be market rate. But itâs nice to see the buildings being restored and put to use instead of just sitting there to rot
It's complicated because at this point, they tend to lose bricks onto people; tearing them down and replacing them is cheaper than fixing a lot of them; we're at the point where cast iron piping rusts out and it's dangerous and difficult to handle without damaging the building and you end up sheathing the building for structural repairs.
A lot of them are sitting on weird foundations, though we have seasons and they built a city under the city as a foundation. A lot of them you end up changing the character of them anyway because you have to sheath them to keep them up.
I dont see how this is a great idea for 'affordable housing'. There is no space. It's a tiny studio with a small bathroom for $600. That's not affordable. It's cramming people into an abandoned building they repurposed to make a buck. I can only imagine how many people they are renting these tiny places to. Sure I guess if you want to live like a college student as an adult It's affordable.
$650 was the rate for a place like this where I used to live, but that was in-town and a good 20 years or so. Taxes alone on a 2-br condo can run $200-300 a month in my area.
There are a huge number of us where that amount of space is exactly what we're looking for.
I am a single autistic dude with a cat. I could live in a prison cell and be perfectly happy.
I'm never having kids and my relationships last about 3 dates every few months when I feel the need to fuck something.
The thing is too, these types of units bring down property costs because people like me can now get the space I require instead of paying two to three times as much for some fancy place that is four times larger than I need.
With people like me packed into these types of units, demand goes down for the bigger units.
When you are poor, low income or just starting out, your options are to live with roommates who can be shite. Or you can adapt to a smaller living environment. I did spend a couple of months in an Apartment living in Japan, in probably just a couple of hundred square feet. It was okay, as in if the only other option was living on the streets.
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u/Reckless_flamingos Oct 20 '22
This is a great idea for affordable housing! I wish there were more options like this. Congratulations!! This is a huge win