SRO's Are Back Because NYC Ran Out of Ideas and Space
You can dress it up, rebrand it, throw in a few fire sprinklers and a modern lease agreement, but when New York City starts pushing to legalize apartments the size of a walk-in closet with shared toilets, let’s call it what it is. The return of the flophouse.
City Council member Erik Bottcher has introduced a bill to legalize the construction of new SROs, or Single Room Occupancy units, for the first time since 1955. These apartments can be as small as 100 square feet. There is no private kitchen. No private bathroom. Just a room. The city is calling it a modern solution. But the truth is clearer. This is a sign New York has run out of new ideas and possibly out of space.
What the New SRO Plan Really Looks Like
The proposal is built around extreme minimalism. Each unit can be as small as 100 square feet. Instead of private amenities, three units would share one kitchen and one bathroom.
The city also wants to allow easier conversions of empty office buildings into residential micro-units. Officials say this will quickly provide lower cost housing for single adults, low-income workers, and people exiting homelessness.
In their pitch, this is the future. But we have seen this future before. It was called the past.
Why the City Killed SROs in the First Place
SROs once made up a large part of the city’s affordable housing stock. But they were plagued by poor living conditions, neglect, and abuse.
They became associated with crime, drugs, fires, and tenant exploitation. By the mid-twentieth century, SROs were seen not as a housing solution but as a public threat. In 1955, New York banned the construction of new SRO buildings. The number of existing units has declined ever since.
Why They Are Back Now and Who Benefits
New York’s housing crisis has reached a boiling point. Rents are out of reach. Demand is crushing supply. Office towers sit empty. Homelessness is rising.
More people than ever are living alone or in nontraditional households. Policymakers see micro-units as a fast way to create cheap housing without fighting zoning battles or building full-scale apartments.
Developers also see opportunity. Office-to-housing conversions can turn loss into profit. And with proper branding, even a 100-square-foot unit can become marketable.
A New Name for an Old Problem
This time the city promises better regulations. Buildings must meet safety standards. Shared kitchens and bathrooms are limited to three units. Sprinklers and modern electrical systems are required.
But the fundamental issue remains. These units reduce the definition of housing to the bare minimum. There is no privacy. No comfort. Just enough space to not sleep on the street.
And rules mean nothing without enforcement. With New York’s history of underfunded inspections and overburdened agencies, conditions can still slip. Fast.
Will This Help or Hurt the City
Proponents argue that micro-units can free up larger apartments for families. That they offer a legal, safer alternative to the city’s gray-market co-living sector. That they are necessary in a city where rents continue to rise.
Critics warn that this is not affordable housing. It is a desperate shortcut. It allows the city to avoid building full-scale homes. It normalizes the idea that low-income residents should settle for less.
The danger is not that SROs will fail. The danger is they will succeed and become the standard for what housing means in New York.
Could SRO's quietly reopen the door to short term rentals in New York City?
Technically, for a property to be approved for "transient use"meaning legal short term rentals it must meet specific zoning requirements. Interestingly, those zoning rules are identical for SROs and Airbnb-style rentals.
Josh Skyer of the Skyer Property Group, one of the earliest and highly successful Airbnb hosts in NYC with over 1,000 five-star reviews, believes this new SRO legislation could act as a stealthy glide path back into the short term rental market. “This might be the legal back door hosts have been waiting for,” Skyer says, hinting that what looks like a housing solution might double as a quiet reboot for an outlawed industry.
Conclusion
New York City has not run out of buildings. It has run out of bold ideas.
This return to SROs is not a leap forward. It is a retreat disguised as innovation. It may help some in the short term, but it also signals a deep failure in how the city thinks about housing, community, and human dignity.
The dream of living in New York used to mean ambition. Now it means sharing a bathroom with strangers for $1,500 a month.
That is not a solution. That is surrender.
