Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays
Whether we want places without kitchens isn't the only point. Affordability is a huge issue. Micros, including the really tiny ones, are the only way you can build housing below a certain affordability level in an expensive city -- little if any kitchen, no parking, dorm-type square footage. I'd have loved to have that option in my early 20s.
Thankfully nobody here seems to be saying these units shouldn't exist. But in the real world that does happen. Apparently it's ok to tell people they should live in a shelter if they can't afford 300 square feet or more.
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Maybe there should be more effort made to allow housing designed for shared apartments with suite-mates. Like 3-4 bedroom apartments with decent sized bedrooms (or at least a lot of storage space designed into them) but smaller common areas.
I've lived in those kinds spaces as a student and into my 20s because it's important for me to have access to a kitchen and that's the most affordable way to get that. You can easily design that to be equivalent to 200 square feet per person assuming they're all bachelors. A lot of the places like that I've lived in were designed to be family homes so you either had larger than necessary living room/dining room areas, or a living/dining room converted to a bedroom, in which case the bedroom was bigger than needed (ditto for master bedrooms).
But anyways, yeah, I cook practically every day and eat out about once a month (including lunches - almost always packed sandwiches/leftovers). I probably save around $300-$400 a month like that.