Democratic delegates are gone, but hotel housing should stay

Clean-up efforts for the Democratic National Convention included putting Chicago’s homeless in hotels used as temporary shelters. Though the celebrity-filled week has ended, this affordable housing approach should be expanded.

The homeless encampment along the Dan Ryan Expressway was cleared out and fenced off last month in anticipation of the Democratic National Convention, with residents offered beds in city-run shelters.

Those included hotels, such as the former Tremont Hotel on the Gold Coast. It is an example of an important affordable shelter type that needs to make a major comeback: single-room occupancy buildings.

Single rooms costing as little as $300 per month are often the first step out of homelessness. For people having trouble paying rent in a city where about 23% of households must pay over half their income for housing, single rooms can be an important part of the affordable housing solution.

A brief history

The prevalence of single rooms reached its height in the 20th century across America’s major cities. As areas such as New York City and Chicago struggled to keep up with a quickly growing workforce, residential hotels gave primarily minority, immigrant and low-income workers housing near their jobs.

Many of these affordable rentals were in urban centers and became the target of urban renewal in the late 1950s and onward. Across the nation, an estimated 1 million single-room units were lost during the onslaught of zoning regulations and reforms. Chicago saw an 80% decline in its 38,845 single-room units between 1960 and 1980.

According to the American Enterprise Institute, “The disappearance of single-room occupancy hotels has coincided with the rise of modern homelessness.” The decline in safe, single-room units has left a hole at the lowest end of the price spectrum that “government-subsidized affordable housing and so-called inclusionary zoning has failed to fill.” It will continue failing without policies aimed at increasing and maintaining the safety of this housing supply.

Efforts to revive

The fall of legal single room housing options has led to a rise in illegal ones. In New York City, experts estimated in 2013 there were only 30,000 legal units compared to 100,000 illegal units. These under-the-radar options can have inadequate safety features, resulting in several fatal fires in the past 15 years.

Chicago need not face the same fate. A couple of past efforts have sought to ensure the city doesn’t.

Chicago saw a decrease in the single-room units available as developers bought these properties and turned them into higher-priced residential housing. In 2014, the city passed the SRO Preservation Ordinance aimed at preventing further losses of available units. It required these building owners to notify the city and residents 180 days in advance of deciding to sell the property and first offer it to those interested in continuing to maintain the residence. Owners could opt out of that process by paying $20,000 per unit plus $10,600 to each resident for relocation costs. This initiative slowed the decline, but the city still saw a loss in buildings offering single-room housing. In 2014, there were 73; in 2021, only 40.

The city approved an additional measure in 2022: the Single Room Occupancy Preservation Loan Program. This $5 million fund was assigned to the Chicago Investment Corp. for administration, making mortgage payments on these kinds of properties more affordable. Additional funds have been called for by affordable housing advocates such as ONE Northside to support further development and the maintenance of existing buildings.

More support needed for single-room occupancy

Homelessness and housing affordability are problems in cities across the nation and were front-of-mind for many mayors attending this year’s convention.  It would be tragic to simply allow the Dan Ryan Expressway homeless encampment to re-emerge on Aug. 31 when those Chicagoans’ current hotel-turned-temporary-housing term ends.

The Democratic Party platform released at the start of the week promised to make housing a major area of focus in the coming years. It promised grants for converting former office space and hotels into apartments and an increase in interim housing for the homeless, but it does not mention single-room units explicitly.

Many people in Chicago recognize single-room housing as essential in the struggle for low-cost housing and the fight to end homelessness. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transition team recommended both short-term and long-term goals aligned with preserving and increasing the number of single rooms in Chicago. There is little evidence to suggest this advice is being followed, however. There has been no census of single-room units taken or an expansion of resources to increase that baseline, both of which were recommended in the transition report.

Johnson’s recent Cut the Tape report could help the preservation of single units the most. It offers good reforms for decreasing regulations choking new housing supply such as reducing zoning restrictions, decreasing expensive regulations and cutting wait times on permits. Efficiency reduces the cost of development, thus making it more feasible to operate housing for low-income Chicagoans and the homeless.

The promises made and vision laid for housing affordability should be expectations, even as the politicians and celebrities make their exit. For Chicagoans here to stay, a return to normal shouldn’t include re-pitching the tents along the Dan Ryan.

Low-cost housing solutions, especially expanding single-room units, can prevent that.