Commentary : To Aid Homeless, O.C. Should Check Into San Diego Hotel Program

The city of San Diego has been a pioneer in providing attractive, well-managed, low-cost housing for the homeless and working poor called SROs, or single-room occupancy residential hotels. Recently, Orange County officials announced the creation of a new task force to explore SRO development in each of the 29 cities in the county, as well as in unincorporated areas.

If Orange County decides to replicate San Diego’s SRO program, they won’t be alone. Nine cities are already using the San Diego model, including Atlanta, Honolulu, Phoenix, Berkeley, Seattle, Lexington, Ky., and Cairns, Australia.

Depending on your age, you might think an SRO is a boarding house, a rooming house, a pension or even a YWCA. As a child of the ‘60s, I used to hear the term “fleabag hotel,” hostel or flophouse.

In 1990, SROs are none of the above. Today, new SROs resemble old SROs about as much as old travel trailers resemble modern RVs.

Architecturally, SROs contradict the notion that low-income housing must reflect low-income occupancy. They fit into their environment with architectural flair and without altering existing height regulations. Many offer commercial/retail use at the ground floor. They aren’t built in single-family neighborhoods, but instead belong in commercial or business neighborhoods, where hotel/motel use would be expected or already permitted.

Averaging about 135 square feet per room, each SRO unit has a standardized built-in wall unit containing refrigerator, sink and microwave, a television, toilet, closet and storage space. Twenty-four-hour, on-site management is a requirement of the program. Visitors sign in and leave when visiting hours are over.

The front desk, arranged to allow eyes-on-the-street monitoring, is the first line of defense against crime. An SRO does not rent by the hour; in fact many people live in them for more than 20 years. The bottom line is that SROs are, by design, safer and better managed than the typical apartment.

Why is this program important? Simply put, SROs are the lowest cost housing in any city. They are the first step to get off the street, and a safety net for people who are on their way down. In an SRO, you don’t need first and last month’s rent and a cleaning, utility or security bond to find permanent housing. In this program, you don’t have to stay homeless while you quietly save up $1,200 to $1,500 to buy your first night back in an apartment.

Frank Landerville, executive director of San Diego’s Regional Task Force on the Homeless, has said many times, “While you won’t solve your homeless problem just by building SROs, you can’t solve your homeless problem without them.”

Who lives in an SRO? SROs offer safe, comfortable and dignified living for the fixed-income retired elderly, the working poor and the disabled. In real terms, this could be a 91-year-old grandmother, a disabled father or a waiter at the local restaurant.

What are the results and rewards of this concept? In the past 2 1/2 years, about 2,500 new SRO units have been completed or are under construction in San Diego. All of these units offer low-income affordable housing without any government subsidy. It’s been proven that the private sector can and will build SROs for profit. And, if government subsidies are provided (San Diego has a voluntary low-interest loan program), very low-income affordable housing is provided for very little money.

Basically, all we have done is revive a 19th-Century idea and turn it into a 20th-Century solution for homelessness. The SRO program works. It’s transferable and it’s very cost-effective.

I was project planner for San Diego’s SRO program from 1985 until this month, when I became the head of a nonprofit, building-industry coalition for the homeless that was established by the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California.

The association is committed to combatting homelessness, and to this end, HOME-AID, a subsidiary of the homeless coalition, has already built two emergency shelter projects in Orange County, and three more are under construction. Two additional shelters have been completed in Lancaster and Venice by local Building Industry Assn. chapters.

If Orange County decides to pursue the SRO model, the association’s Coalition for the Homeless can build nonprofit SROs in Orange County, or we can forge partnerships with for-profit SRO developers and make private sector SROs even more affordable to very low-income people.

The potential is great and the possibilities for serving the homeless are impressive. Now it’s up to the Orange County SRO Task Force and each of the 29 cities to make it happen.