By: Rob Hoffman
A 25-year-old illustrator recently aired a unique solution to San Francisco’s absurd living costs. When plan ‘A’ fell through due to unexpectedly high housing prices—renting a two bedroom apartment with a friend—Peter Berkowitz decided to innovate. But his solution is both inspiring and terrifying.
For $1,300, Berkowitz hired a few carpentry savvy friends to construct a “living pod” in the common room of a San Francisco apartment, which he shares with roommates. The pod, 8×3.5 x 4.5 feet, costs him just over $500 per month: $400 in rent, and $1,300 to build the pod stretched over a year adding $108 per month. Though tiny, the living space comes with a skylight, fan, fold up backboard, LED lights, fold down desk and bookshelf. Berkowitz is currently working on soundproofing.
For $1,300, Berkowitz hired a few carpentry savvy friends to construct a “living pod” in the common room of a San Francisco apartment.
Photo: Peter Berkowitz
“If pods can provide an attractive way to add a bedroom to an apartment, I think they could help a lot of people out. People with the extra space wanting to bring in more money by subletting, people looking for cheap and simple housing, or people wanting to add another bedroom so their friend can move in could all benefit.” Berkowitz writes on his website. Berkowitz is currently offering his service—pod building—to other Bay Area locals fed up with housing costs.
Though it’s worth celebrating Berkowitz’s innovation and creativity, it’s important to contemplate the future of a society that declines to accommodate reasonable living standards—like making ends meet by sharing an apartment with roommates. When even this is unattainable without an extraordinary income, either the housing market gives or American living standards take a serious decline.
You can judge a lot about a society by the support given to its poorer class. How difficult would it be to live in San Francisco on minimum wage? Currently, minimum wage in California is 10.00 USD per hour. In a 40 hour work week, one makes about $1,600 per month before taxes. This means, to live in San Francisco on minimum wage, one would need to share a one bedroom apartment with two other people—each paying approximately $1,000 per month in rent—to scrape by (this doesn’t take into account exorbitant food or general living costs. Splitting a two-bedroom with a roommate is out of the reach of anyone who does not generate at least $16 dollars an hour—to manage approximately $2,063 in rent, a phone bill, utilities, internet, weekly food cost, on top of taxes, medical expenses, potential car insurance, travel costs and general living costs—and that would mean just barely scraping by.
Photo: Peter Berkowitz
Though it’s easy to group Berkowitz’s initiative in with the tiny-house movement, it’s equally as comparable to Hong Kong’s six by two foot cage homes.
Hong Kong’s cage homes serve as a reminder to the bleak aftermath of a lack of affordable housing and job opportunities, even in one of the world’s wealthiest cities. In Hong Kong, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to settle for these deplorable conditions. This is partially due to the housing boom. In Hong Kong, housing costs have doubled since 2008, with an additional 23 percent tacked on in 2012, and the numbers continue to rise. Meanwhile, jobs are scarce and wages are low.
Though Berkowitz’s pod home is more aesthetically pleasing, the principle of squeezing into a coffin-like enclosure to make ends meet is, in a word, un-American.
Photo: Peter Berkowitz
One thing to keep in mind is the possibility of San Francisco rent evening out with the recently proposed increase of minimum wage to $15 an hour, in conjunction with the inevitable bursting of the Bay Area housing bubble. Daniel Goldstein, from Market Watch, compares the current real estate market of San Francisco to the situation preceding the 2000 dot-com tech burst. Governor Jerry Brown also recently announced his commitment to achieving a $15 an hour minimum wage by 2022.
In the meantime, Berkowitz’s solution of a “housing pod” is an innovative way to live in the Bay Area for a reasonable price. Though it’s worth mentioning that this unique situation requires the consent of roommates. Could Berkowitz’s pod-style homes be the future of San Francisco housing for young professionals? Lets hope not.
Image sources: instagram.com, peteberk.com
