[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

There are also people who live in actual basements in San Francisco. Though I imagine that that is super illegal and probably not that common.

Reality is always more dramatic than theory in the Bay Area. Not only do people live in basements (aren't Millennials doing that all over the country?), developers are developing underground warrens--like termite dens--for them:

Maybe underground ‘sleeping pods’ in the Mission aren’t a bad idea after all?

Of the 219 units micro-housing developer Chris Elsey of Elsey Partners LLC wants to build in the Mission District, 65 of them would be underground sleeping pods renting between $1,000 to $1,375 . . . .

Elsey, a Kansas-based developer, would like to build two apartment buildings in the Mission District, located across from each other on surface lots at 401 South Van Ness and 1500 15th Street, that would each include two basement-level floors.

“Above ground, the building would feature eights floors with 161 units—each 200-square-feet including a bathroom and kitchen,” reports SFGate. “In the basement-level floors, the sleeping pods are stacked on top of one another, like bunk beds, with one side opening to a common living space.”

Think of the cellar spaces somewhat akin to capsule hotels, popular in countries like Iceland and Japan, where people sleep comfortably on the cheap in pod-like rooms. But unlike the overseas hotels, Elsey’s underground pods would only come with curtains for privacy, as the city’s building code won’t allow them built with a wall and door. And while the basement units won’t come with windows, Elsey says that the common space, which would face an outdoor courtyard, would provide some natural diffused light.

Though abnormal and ostensibly outrageous, exceedingly tiny sleeping units have, due to the city’s “cruel and inhumane” housing crisis, proven successful in San Francisco as of late. For example, the $1,200-per-month bunk bed pods in the Tenderloin, which made headlines last year, sold out as soon as they hit the market . . . .

The buildings’ above ground studios would rent between $2,000 to $2,375, a bargain in a city there the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,683 . . . .

(The Building--above ground)


(Diagram of below-ground "podville")

https://sf.curbed.com/2020/1/10/2105...unk-beds-dorms