Sometimes, coverage of the housing crisis can make it seem like the situation is hopeless: there aren’t enough homes, rents keep rising, and even smart-sounding fixes — turn vacant offices into apartments! — end up being too expensive. So when correspondent Rachel M. Cohen heard about an exciting new housing idea, we knew we wanted to learn more.
The plan takes on the turn-vacant-offices-into-apartments concept, with a twist. It costs too much to convert into a traditional apartment, but what about micro-apartments? Or, as we put it, “adult dorms” where you get your own private space but have shared kitchens and bathrooms? (There would even be a gym for residents.)
Rachel walks the reader through exactly how these adult dorms might work, how they could address the housing crisis, and how it’s different from those buzzy “co-living” startups that have since shuttered. These kinds of “dorms” (or, technically, single-room occupancy housing) have long been stigmatized, but here’s a practical example of how they could be a major solution.
—Angela Chen, senior editor
