3 ms·

What a great story. The only thing that makes it a bit sad is how unscalable it is. It's great to help two people, but it must be frustrating knowing there are

What a great story. The only thing that makes it a bit sad is how unscalable it is. It's great to help two people, but it must be frustrating knowing there are so many others you cannot help. Imagine if everyone in SF with a guest bedroom did this.

tomohawk 8y ago
Scale at the lower end is far more important and impactful. A guy decides he wants to help some people and he does. He uses resources he has available to do so. He's involved. Much more honest than someone deciding they want to help people, and then turns around and lobbies the government to do it.
wahern 8y ago
> Imagine if everyone in SF with a guest bedroom did this. And if they cause trouble? Good luck getting rid of them, especially in SF. In many localities, including SF, they'd be tenants with tenants rights, such as just cause eviction and possibly even rent control. I'm usually pro-rent control but it doesn't work well for small numbers of units, and can easily become a nightmare for single family homes, especially if they're in the house and not an in-law. What people can do is sign-up to accept Section 8 vouchers. Federal law will then immunize you from some of the local tenants' rights regulations, including rent control. Section 8 vouchers will often be for less than market rate, but it'll keep pace with inflation much better than the index used for SF rent control. Not sure if section 8 will pay for guest bedrooms, but there are federal and local programs to subsidize construction of in-law units. Most SF houses built in the early 20th century were built with unfinished first floors--for shops, work spaces, living spaces, etc. These weren't originally garages, though most ended up being used as garages after the car boom. Most houses can easily fit a small single unit in the garage without having to give up the garage space entirely. It's already quite common (not surprising given they were literally constructed with this in mind).

tomohawk 8y ago

Scale at the lower end is far more important and impactful. A guy decides he wants to help some people and he does. He uses resources he has available to do so. He's involved. Much more honest than someone deciding they want to help people, and then turns around and lobbies the government to do it.

wahern 8y ago

> Imagine if everyone in SF with a guest bedroom did this. And if they cause trouble? Good luck getting rid of them, especially in SF. In many localities, including SF, they'd be tenants with tenants rights, such as just cause eviction and possibly even rent control. I'm usually pro-rent control but it doesn't work well for small numbers of units, and can easily become a nightmare for single family homes, especially if they're in the house and not an in-law. What people can do is sign-up to accept Section 8 vouchers. Federal law will then immunize you from some of the local tenants' rights regulations, including rent control. Section 8 vouchers will often be for less than market rate, but it'll keep pace with inflation much better than the index used for SF rent control. Not sure if section 8 will pay for guest bedrooms, but there are federal and local programs to subsidize construction of in-law units. Most SF houses built in the early 20th century were built with unfinished first floors--for shops, work spaces, living spaces, etc. These weren't originally garages, though most ended up being used as garages after the car boom. Most houses can easily fit a small single unit in the garage without having to give up the garage space entirely. It's already quite common (not surprising given they were literally constructed with this in mind).