Opinion: Pricey Dorms Aren't the Problem with San Francisco

The single room occupancy (SRO) dorm style housing from developer Starcity has been the target of scorn, but that hate seems misdirected, according to an opinion pice by Alex Baca. "Silicon Valley has already luxurified buses, corner stores, and dietary meal replacements in the name of disruption. And now … dormitories?" 

It's easy to laugh at paying $1,400 - $2,400 for one room, "… but dorms didn’t make the Bay Area so expensive, and they aren’t actually the issue here. We need more of this kind of living arrangement in every city, not less," Baca argues.

No, luxury dorms won't solve San Francisco's affordability crises, but they do represent an alternative to the dominance of the single family home. 28% of Americans are single people living alone, in contrast to the 20% living with a nuclear family, so these people deserve options as to how they choose to live. "While the caricature of who pays $2,400 to live in a way we associate with college—and what their presence is or isn’t doing to San Francisco—may not be broadly true, it’s powerful enough to elicit an irrational response to a way of living that has a significant precedent," Baca writes.