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 ...
It reminds me of train sleeper cars I’ve seen in old movies.
WHAT! No doors to lock nor bars on entrances ... what could go wrong
A friend's American (and half-Japanese) son and his wife just bought a nice house in a suburban town outside Tokyo, with a view of Mt. Fuji. I haven't visited, but saw photos. it's quite lovely. Its a 4 bedroom, well-built house with a garage, has a yard and is 10 minute walk to a train/commuter rail station. Was told it cost under $250K
It seems after 3 decades, the property bubble has deflated.
My police academy sergeant said
“locks keep honest people honest”
a true criminal has no issue getting through a lock or locked door.
Unless you have lexan bullet resistant windows, solid steel frame doors and door frames with 4 inch lag bolts tripled to the structural members of the home. You do not have a secure structure you have the illusion of security. Code hollow wood frame doors and 1 1/2” screw held lock plates open with a single kick and not a very hard one at that. Glass is even easier to breach.
One of my side gigs as a former military LEO, CID agent and physical security operations officer is actually securing a structure from forced entry , external fire ,tornado or flooding. My wife’s school private faculty was one of my projects. You couldn’t breach it with AR10 rifle fire or battering ram, vehicles are excluded by solid steel & concrete bollards. Every window is ballistic rated for rifle fire, auto locking internal doors also breach and rifle resistant safe rooms that are fire, tornado and blast resistant. This is actual PSO , real security and real safety matrix. Everything else is placations.
Join the navy and they will give you that bunk space for free...
Sadly a lot of the rural and suburban homes vacant are due to the demographics crisis in Japan. Older people simply died and either had no children to leave it too or the children do not want to live in the rural and suburban areas outside the urban night lifestyle. I would love one of those as a weekender stay in a tiny home sized place all week party in Shibuya then take the train Saturday morning to the countryside and chill for the weekend. Return Monday morning to the city.
I tried them a couple years ago. I always wanted to live like the Wild Wild West. “Sleepers” they are not. You don’t rock to a gentle beat like Ario Guthrie sang about.
It works great if you don’t have kids or pets.
“Join the navy and they will give you that bunk space for free...”
What Navy...not the US Navy. Those are three times taller than Navy racks and at least twice as wide. If you don’t smack your forehead if you sit up too fast it ain’t a Navy rack sir. You should see the racks they put Marines in we are cargo to the Navy. On a SSN you hot rack or sleep on top of the fish in the torpedo room. Yeah imagine having a 21” wide 3600lb torp inches above your whole body that if it leaks otto fuel on you it burns like acid. Good tomes, good times. 0321 for the win.
I say we need competition on this 700 a month no thrills. I bet that you could make a decent profit at 200 a month providing this service. 700 is expensive but cheap when you compare it to a 2,500 a month studio apartment
Tiny homes work for pets, my favorite indoor puppy follows me everywhere she stays in hotels with me and sleeps as it is right now in bed with us usually wrapped around my feet or across my pillows using my shaved head as a belly heater. 30# 10” beagle she would have no issue sleeping in a pod that sized with daddy.
She is service dog trained and certified as a cardiac arrest dog, she carries the AED , nitro, epinephrine, instructions on what to do and also a separate phone that only calls 911 or the five contact numbers in its emergency contact list. So she flys with me everywhere I go no one can say no she is perfectly trained she sits quietly until she is needed or called over. Food is her weakness she is like all beagles food motivated so she gets the extra NO at restaurants but still just sits and waits like a good puppy.
The payback on that $5600 Amazon tiny home would be 11.5 months at $700 with $200 taken as profit from month one. Over its 20 year lifespan $159,000 gross profits.
These homes are so small and light they do not exceeded the per square foot load limits for code built urban roofs. This means you could crane them up on top of existing warehouse districts and have rentals up top. Make patio and garden space between them with grills and tables like a park setting. They would rent like hotcakes to urban seeking youth’s.
Power is easy tap the building triple phase 120/208v or if it’s 3P 480c a 50KVA split phase auto transformer to 120/240 is the size of those green boxes you see in your neighborhood between homes. Actually smaller those are usually 75KVA sized. Water tap the building fire suppression or city mains and sub meter it. No gas all electric tiny homes. Water for sewage is easy pipe it down one of the existing sewerage vent gas pipes those tie directly to the waste mains leaving the building. You could out ten units up with a 50KVA transformer feeding them.
Why does 'one stop shop' for thieves and criminals come to mind?
I was on an aircraft carrier some 40 years ago during a relative peace time period. For single people living on the ship, it can be a great way to save money for the next chapter of their lives..
Agreed, I was 0321 with a wife that lived while I was gone with her dad in Santa Anna CA. It wouldn’t be until I joined the Army years later and went green to gold that I would have off base housing. No wife then...wouldn’t get another one till much later in life smartly.
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