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Every part of Barbara Peraza-Garcia and her family\u2019s single-room apartment in Seattle has a double or even triple purpose.<\/p>\n
The 180-square-foot (17-square-meter) room is filled with an air mattress where she, her partner and their children, ages 2 and 4, sleep. It\u2019s also where they play or watch TV. At mealtimes, it becomes their dining room.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tight squeeze for the family of asylum seekers from Venezuela. But at $900 a month \u2014more than $550 less than the\u00a0average studio in Seattle<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the micro-apartment with a bare-bones bathroom and shared kitchen was just within their budget and gave them a quick exit from their previous arrangement sleeping on the floor of a church.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s warm. We can cook ourselves. We have a private bathroom. It\u2019s quiet,\u201d said Peraza-Garcia, whose family came to the U.S. to escape crime in Venezuela and so she could access vital medication to combat cysts on her kidney. \u201cWe can be here as a family now.\u201d<\/p>\n Boarding houses that rented single rooms to low-income, blue-collar or temporary workers were prevalent across the U.S. in the early 1900s. Known as single room occupancy units, or SROs, they started to disappear in the postwar years amid urban renewal efforts and a focus on suburban single-family housing.<\/p>\n Now the concept is reappearing \u2014 with the trendy name of \u201cmicro-apartment\u201d and aimed at a much broader array of residents \u2014 as cities buffeted by surging homelessness struggle to make housing more affordable<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a single person and you want a low-cost place to live, that\u2019s as cheap as you\u2019re going to get<\/a> without trying to find a subsidized apartment,\u201d said Dan Bertolet, senior director of housing and urbanism for the non-profit research center Sightline Institute.<\/p>\n The Pacific Northwest is a leader in the resurgence of this form of affordable housing. Oregon last year passed a bill opening the door for micro-apartments and Washington state lawmakers this year did the same, starting to clear red tape that for years has limited construction of the tiny units, which are about a third the size of an average studio apartment.<\/p>\n The Washington bill, which was signed this week by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee after receiving nearly unanimous support in the Legislature, would require most cities to allow micro-apartments in residential buildings with at least six units, according to the Department of Commerce. It takes effect in late 2025.<\/p>\n The legislation is an effort to counteract skyrocketing housing prices and, in the Seattle area, one of the\u00a0nation\u2019s highest rates of homelessness<\/a>, as well as a critical housing shortage.<\/p>\n Extremely low-income renters \u2014 those below federal poverty guidelines or earning 30% of the area median income \u2014 face a shortage of 7.3 million affordable rental homes, according to a National Low Income Housing Coalition report published last week. Such households account for 11 million \u2014 or nearly one-quarter \u2014 of renters nationwide, the report said.<\/p>\n Rep. Mia Gregerson, who sponsored Washington\u2019s bill, said she predicts the measure will lead to thousands of units being built in her state, providing unsubsidized affordable housing to everyone from young people getting their first apartment and elderly people downsizing to those coming out of physical or mental health treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernment can\u2019t close that gap all by itself, it has to have for-profit, market-rate housing built all at the same time,\u201d said Gregerson, a Democrat.<\/p>\n The U.S. lost hundreds of thousands of SROs in the last half of the 20th century as associations with poverty and substandard accommodation sparked restrictive zoning laws. Some cities outlawed their construction altogether \u2014 a loss some housing experts say helped contribute to the homelessness crisis.<\/p>\n Facing that crisis and a critical housing shortage, cities and states across the nation are now shifting their stance.<\/p>\n In December, as her state grappled with a massive influx of migrants, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $50 million program aimed at repairing and renovating 500 SROs across the state. New York City lost at least 70,000 such units between the early 20th century and 2014, according to a report from New York University\u2019s Furman Center.<\/p>\n But there is concern that this type of affordable housing is not an ideal fit for an especially vulnerable group \u2014 families.<\/p>\n