Why boardinghouses could make a comeback

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There is a burgeoning effort across the U.S. to revive boardinghouses, aka single room occupancy units or SROs, as a solution to the housing crisis. But what happened to them in the first place? We track the disappearance of the first rung of the housing ladder.

Fact-checking by Vito Emanuel.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR
0:02.0	On the upper west side of Manhattan, there is a big brick building that offers clues about how to bring down homelessness.
0:19.0	This building is seven stories tall and really wide.
0:22.7	It takes up the whole block length.
0:25.0	Hello.
0:25.7	Hi.
0:26.0	My name's Dario.
0:27.9	On one of the floors lives a resident of 15 years.
0:31.5	My name is Vera Hill.
0:33.2	I'm not going to ask you how old you are.
0:34.8	I don't mind telling how old I am.
0:37.1	I'm 77. In Vera's room, you are. I don't mind telling how old I am. I'm 77.
0:38.8	In Vera's room, there's a sofa, a recliner, a widescreen TV, and lots of photos on the walls.
0:45.2	My brother, my sisters, that's my mom over the clock.
0:50.6	There's also an artwork that says, in all capital letters, fierce.
0:55.2	Oh, that was given to me by one of the kids.
0:58.3	I'm fierce.
1:00.5	Her space doesn't have it all, though.
1:02.8	I would love to have an apartment with a kitchen.
1:06.0	You have to share a bathroom?
1:07.4	Yes. Oh, that's, yes.
1:10.7	Vera Hill lives in what's called a
	...

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