Why are single-room units in San Diego disappearing?

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. KPBS race and equity reporter Katie Hyson joins me to talk about her new two part series on San Diego's dorm style housing and why it's disappearing. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Is the cheapest housing option in San Diego has long been dorm style rooms. Those single room occupancy units , though , or SROs , can be life changing for those who have access to them. But they're rapidly disappearing , and the city can't seem to turn that around. KPBS Katie Hyson has a new two part series , All About This. She's our racial justice and social equity reporter. Katie , welcome to Midday Edition.

S2: Thanks for having me.

S1: So glad you're here. So your story starts with Calvin Neal , and he lives in one of the city's few remaining SRO units in the Hotel Churchill. So tell me about his story.

S2: He says when he came home , he tried to find work in hospitals but couldn't. So he worked security jobs instead , until one day he was laid off and he missed that month's rent , and an eviction notice was placed on the door of his apartment downtown , and he spent the next three years homeless. But then , Calvin says , because he fought in a war , he was fast tracked for veterans housing. So the city owned this old hotel , the Hotel Churchill , and they renovated it into SROs. And they placed Calvin in one of those SRO units as soon as it opened. And that was about nine years ago. Here's Calvin talking about what moving into this room has meant to him.

S3: Away from the turmoil and all of that. You know , it's just good to have somewhere to be. Go out into the world. Have a bad day. Come in here. I'm fine after a while. Mm.

S1: Mm. Well , now that he's living in this SRO , he says he actually feels a sort of survivor's guilt. Tell me about that. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. So there are not many SROs left in San Diego. There's certainly not enough for everyone who needs one to live in one. The Hotel Churchill is downtown , and so from his window , Calvin can see both this luxury high rise that's being built across the street and homeless San Diegans trying to survive on the sidewalk beneath him. It's hard for him to know that in some ways he got lucky , and he has this room when there are so many others who also need it.

S1: And you actually went and visited Calvin in his SRO.

S2: It was very clean and cozy. It was about the size of a dorm room , but it had a kitchen built in with a stove and sink and fridge. There was a big window and his own bathroom with a toilet and shower. The hotel has communal spaces and a backyard patio with a community garden. And really importantly , there are on site social services.

S1: That's great.

S2: A typical SRO , the room is about the size of a one car garage , and tenants often share a bathroom or kitchen down the hall. Think like a college dorm. And UCSD researchers have interviewed many tenants across many SRO buildings , and what they've found is that SROs can be poorly managed. They can have roach infestations or appliances that break and don't get fixed for a while. It can get hot. And importantly , they're not laid out well for people with mobility devices. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. So tell me , what are the benefits of an SRO for someone who might be struggling to afford rent.

S2: Well , all those downsides also mean that SROs are by far the cheapest housing in the city. They're usually around $1,000 a month , give or take , and there are usually lower barriers to renting them. So no security deposits or credit checks. And that makes SROs the most accessible housing for someone that doesn't have a lot of starting resources.

S1:

S2: A lot of people with disabilities , not everybody , but many live on fixed income. And so this is exactly the kind of housing that they need. And so if you have , you can't , you know , fit your scooter inside your room. You can't the elevator is not big enough. There are a lot of barriers to the people who need this housing the most and being able to live well in them. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. Well , your reporting actually dives into the history of SROs , which were widely available in big cities in the 20th century.

S2: Public opinion began to turn against SROs. They were seen as a , quote unquote , blight on society. I spoke with Stacey Livingstone. She's a Livingston , sorry. She's a researcher for UC San Diego's homelessness hub. And here's how she described the stigma that formed.

S4: SROs had a real negative connotation. They were seen as housing that outsiders lived in transients , folks who didn't want to work , folks who didn't want to get married. Interesting.

S1: Interesting.

S2: And so when the city revitalized Horton Plaza and the Gaslamp Quarter in the 80s , it lost a quarter of its SROs at once. By 2002 , there were only 110 SRO buildings left , and by a couple years ago that had dropped to just 35. And really , what that did is push this so-called blight of poverty out of SROs and onto San Diego's streets , where it's even more visible. And we've seen the number of homeless Sandy Egan's just saw in the decade since.

S1: Well , the city has now been prioritizing SROs in recent years.

S2: So in Mayor Todd Gloria's Housing Action Package 2.0 , he included some incentives for developers to build more SRO so they could win exemption from certain zoning laws if they included SROs in their projects. But I asked the city how many new SROs had been permitted since those incentives were passed , and they said zero. A spokesperson said , look , the city can't control the market , right ? And it usually takes time for any programs or incentives like these to gain traction. But that zero number definitely caught my ear as a journalist , and I'll be curious to see if that changes in the coming years.

S1: Yeah , and you actually spoke to a local developer to find out his perspective on this.

S2:

S5: I think the question you should be asking is more. Is it affordable to develop anything right now ? Costs are just astronomically out the roof for construction materials and labor. Interest rates are high. Land prices are out the roof.

S2: So I asked him what he thinks local government would have to do to make SROs appealing to developers to build. And , he said , even more drastic incentives. So no property taxes , no development or permit fees , even less regulation.

S1:

S2: Many more homes are being permitted in recent years , but it's not enough yet to keep up with need , and even the units the city deems affordable can rent for more than $2,000 a month. That's twice the rent of a typical SRO , which is out of reach for the many , many people like Calvin , who have nowhere else to go , who are seniors or , as we said , people with disabilities living on fixed income , people who are leaving homelessness or incarceration or aging out of foster care or the many , many minimum wage workers that keep our city running. Mm.

S1: Mm. No , I can't wait to to see the rest of your series. And this is something that I know will be following. I've been speaking with Katie Hyson. She covers racial justice and social equity for KPBS. And you can check out her full story , part one and two on our website , pbs.org. Katie , thank you so much.

S2: Thanks , Jane.

S1: That's our show for today.

S6: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.