I thought to myself: "where have I seen this before?" And then it came to me....
Posted on 09/05/2025 9:55:42 AM PDT by algore
It’s been two topsy-turvy years for Brownstone Shared Housing since the startup opened up its tiny bed “pods” for rent in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood — without the necessary permits — in 2023.
The startup’s 26 to 30-pod complex in Mint Plaza has withstood complaints from city officials, outlasted the threat of debilitating fees and, recently, avoided an eviction threat.
All the while, Brownstone has rented beds to a rotating cast of tech startup founders, immigrants and other new-to-the-city characters willing to stay in barely private, 4-foot-tall boxes for $700 a month.
And now, CEO James Stallworth is ramping up Brownstone’s ambitions.
He told SFGATE on Wednesday that the startup is close to leasing a new space not far from Mint Plaza, big enough for 100 pods.
But it would likely be the last building Brownstone runs itself — Stallworth also wants to shift to a franchise model, where San Francisco’s landlords would tap into his pool of applicants by converting their offices into space for pod housing. His goal is lofty in the extreme: 10,000 new pods downtown.
“We’re not doing this just, you know, for self-gratification,” Stallworth said. “Our goal is to create as much housing as people need.”
The franchise system, as Stallworth pitches it, would encourage landlords — particularly of lower-end commercial office space — to embrace office-to-housing conversions and quickly get people back into their vacant buildings.
Brownstone’s pods and furniture, can be set up in mere weeks. Permitting, as the startup has learned, is far slower.
Stallworth said he doubts most landlords would charge as little as $700 a month for the pods, but he added that his startup would use its applicants’ relatively low salaries to encourage landlords to set prices low and fill their beds.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Japan has done this for decades. Their pods have doors, A.C.and heat individually, flat screen touch screens, Wi-Fi, and lighting that dims on command or timer. They are wide enough for two to sleep side by side as well. A lot of corporate campuses have them for free for their workers and execs to use for a power nap. The Japanese stay out late and party hard then sleep a few hours and back to the office the mid afternoon power nap is justified.
Free market in the USA if someone makes these and power rent them so be it that’s how the market should work.
Everyone look up “Cantillon Effect”
Your enslavement to inflation, debt and the woke, crony socialist/capitalist state is proceeding apace.
“Are there any Tiny Homes in the area? Given land cost, if there are, I wonder what they cost.”
People set up ADU formally additional dwelling unit/s in their backyards in SF they rent for $2500 or more per month easy. $10,000 a month for two bedrooms downtown SF is not unheard of. NYC and Austin both have 10000K plus rentals in the condo markets downtown same for SF it’s what will the market bear and there are lots of high income people in those cities willing to pay to live where the urban action is.
I thought to myself: "where have I seen this before?" And then it came to me....
That picture looks like a slum from Dickens time in England
The Japanese versions are exactly like that they are two feet longer than the avg sleeping person with a locking door from the inside plus individual heating and A.C. Controls quite comfortable for a mid day power nap or a simple overnight stay while partying late in a near by city via train. There is enough room for your bags at your feet so everything you included is locked inside safe snug and sound.
$700 per month works out to $23 per day that’s MUCH cheaper than any hotel or even hostel in SF. In Japan they have public bathhouses so a couple days in a pod while treking is no bigs. Nationwide gym memberships are cheap and every one of them has showers to be had.
When I was a second time grad student I used my teaching stipend to get a gym membership and just slept in my office in the futton I bought against the wall, closed locked office inside of digital key card research facility no one cared as we worked on research till 2 or 3 am anyways a lot of nights. The research labs had a kitchen for use by staff. Had a microwave, convection oven too. Pocketed the $2200 per month stipend. GF was also a researcher so she crashed with me on the regular same department same major. $4400 a month between the two of us and no rent or bills was plenty of walking cash we ate out a lot just bring left overs to the fridges and label it.
Coming soon: Remote locking doors and special gas vents.
Bedbug city.
The fact that Japan was able to blow a property and debt bubble so great it was able to force students, travelers and low income folks into expensive “bed pods” is not something to be envied or admired.
Besides, Japan has (had?) a very strong and unified culture, with strict standards of hygiene, service and public behavior. Its a credit to their social harmony they could make such a thing work
If you want to see another, downgraded version of this, look up “Hong Kong Cage Homes,” or “Hong Kong Cage Men”
Now to take it to a further dystopian level, consider how this concept play out in woke, free-for-all, polyglot San Francisco?
Amazon sells tiny home kits if you can find land and get the permit for an ADU for a college age or single male tens of thousands in rent per year can be saved. Or get together with a group of like minded people and buy 1-5 acres outside city limits where city codes don’t apply and form a co-op LLC for not only the land but also utilities specificity solar panels cover the acreage wirh panels sell the power and split up the $$$$ profits by shares while also enjoying 3 cent or less per kWh power. Water is get a geo on board and drill a community well. Greywater systems are cheap that water goes to gardens and irrigation. No blackwater incineration toilets for each unit when you have large amounts of kWh on the cheap it is much cheaper to turn waste to solid carbon and gases via 1000F electric heat than a septic system. My lake house has two incinerator units and they are odorless and only need to cook once every other day or so depending on how many females are present. Males piss outside like men damn it.
Here is one under 6 grand
https://www.amazon.com/20FT-PrefabTiny-Prefabricated-Personalized-Customization/dp/B0FC2HY94Q/
Under 10k
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Container-Foldable-Functional-Expandable/dp/B0FN4C44D6/
A slew more.
https://financebuzz.com/tiny-homes-amazon-less-usd-6000
Sleep in one of those don’t be surprised if you wake up in a Soylent Green plant.
Human ant farms.
And free health and dental care!
Wow, that’s about what my son pays (along with 2 roommates) to rent a 2000 square foot home, on an acre, in a nice neighborhood!
If Japan believes they need locking doors in their country what do you think about us? Unfortunately our leaders are peddling diversity is our strength.
Just think of the profit the hookers can make with those a one stop shopping center.
I have been to Hong Kong, it’s worse than soho or Chinatown NYC level mini units. There is some pretty neat movable walls and “transformer” units in HK
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WB2-2j9e4co
Japan uses the pods for their workers to power nap in because they work from 7 am till after 9 then go to the izakaya directly , for sake and sushi or actual izakaya then late night karaoke and more sake on work nights...every night.
They also use them when just popping over to a city to party with no planned hotel set up. Cheap easy to rent and no set check in or out times its by the hour. Room for you your backpack or carry on. Get blasted , crash, take the train back in the morning. One of my father’s my biological one was at the director level and also at one point a VP for TELCO I would spend three weeks to a month with him in Tokyo at a time usually summer or between semesters at university.
Japan has a cultural bias to urban living. Their rural market is in full collapse they can’t give away properties. Thousands of vacant houses and land dot the countryside they are even offering gaijin incentives to move to those rural communities and live in those properties. If I was 5 years younger they would have approved my perm res visa but even with three master’s and a Phd you age out and cannot stay permrez since I am married already to a German dual citizen the marriage visa in Japan is out obviously. I hold dual already (EU) and the USA won’t allow triple citizenship. So Japan will remain just a fun trip destination for now.
Hong Kong calls those “Cage Appartments.”
Oh Japan fell for the diversity too. They are having marches in the streets as the citizens say no more Nigerians or other Africans.
https://x.com/isfjcutebear/status/1961552521593590262
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