These short-term micro-housing items with shared bogs and kitchen areas have been a typical supply of reasonably priced housing for generations of newcomers to San Francisco, and, in keeping with a Pew Charitable Trusts report, had been used to hire for as little as $100 to $300 per 30 days in 2025 {dollars}. Immediately, month-to-month hire in an SRO in San Francisco prices, on common, round $900, in keeping with the San Francisco Planning Division.
In stark distinction to the pods, SROs in San Francisco’s most densely packed neighborhoods have turn into de facto everlasting housing for town’s lowest-income residents, because the inventory of extraordinarily reasonably priced housing has diminished.
“To me, there’s this query of, is [a sleeping pod] a main residence?” mentioned Malcolm Yeung, CEO of Chinatown Neighborhood Improvement Heart, which manages a portfolio of SROs in San Francisco.
Whereas SROs went from primarily serving as stopgap housing to a everlasting place to reside, Charlotte Sarfati didn’t assume she might do the identical in a sleeping pod. She reached her private restrict at 9 months after staying in numerous pod buildings, like Haas Dwelling, earlier than shifting to a one-bedroom house in Oakland.
“Particularly with having a full-time job, it begins type of attending to you simply being round folks and wanting privateness,” the nurse-turned-tech employee mentioned. “As soon as you’re feeling the drain of working a 9-to-5, it grew to become a bit of an excessive amount of for me.”
Using the AI wave
With its minimalistic AirSpace aesthetic, Brownstone is actively catering to Safrati’s demographic: residents of their 20s to early 40s, with many present residents telling KQED they work in tech.
On the 400-pod megadorm that Brownstone is attempting to launch, the identical twin-sized pods would go for $1,200 per 30 days, about $500 greater than the Mint Plaza location. Stallworth mentioned that’s merely a mirrored image of the market, which has seen rents go up this 12 months in San Francisco.
“They’re making much more cash per sq. foot than a studio could be,” Martí mentioned. “And that’s at all times been the case, proper? Builders make more cash on studios than they do on two-bedrooms as a result of for those who can cram extra little studios, you may earn much more.”
In different phrases, cramming extra folks into smaller areas is a straightforward method to squeeze cash out of extra renters. The marketplace for sleeping pods, presently valued at round $2.7 billion in 2026, is rising globally, in keeping with Enterprise Analysis Insights.
Home costs have practically tripled in San Francisco within the restoration following the Nice Recession, in keeping with Reid. Because of this, households which might be price burdened have gone from these making below $50,000 per 12 months to now near $100,000.
“That is actually making San Francisco a spot that solely the extraordinarily wealthy can afford,” Reid mentioned. “It means affordability pressures are shifting up the earnings ladder, simply due to the shortage of each rental and reasonably priced house possession alternatives.”
Stallworth, 34, acquired the concept for Brownstone whereas he was a pupil at Stanford College, going through his personal housing struggles within the 2010s.
“I used to be crashing on couches and attempting to make it work, nevertheless it was extraordinarily troublesome,” he mentioned.
Stallworth ended up residing without spending a dime within the basement of a hacker home stacked with Ikea bunk beds in trade for serving to run the reserving system. He met his co-founder, Christina Lennox, whereas working as an auditor for the state. She had expertise as a landlord, and the 2 wished to create a substitute for what they noticed on the housing market.
“Housing is a barrier to alternatives,” Stallworth mentioned. “In Silicon Valley, we wish to fake that it’s a meritocracy, however entry to housing is generally decided by cash.”
Enterprise hasn’t all been easy, and the corporate’s relationship with town has been rocky.
