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Great reporting . I'd never even thought about boarding houses til I saw this and now it seems like an obvious fix for people in a new city, newly divorced, etc.
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This reminds me of the Guild Hotel in downtown San Diego. It’s been turned into a hotel that way over charges for Comic Con. “Originally built in 1924 as a YMCA for the Armed Services, the hotel has been restored”
My parents met in a Boarding House. My middle name is from the couple who owned the house.
I rented from a similar place in DC in Mt Pleasant/Columbia Heights area back in 2011 for 850 a month (including utilities I think). Was very convenient when needed a place badly. Stayed for 6 months and eventually rented a 2br with a friend
Fascinating. And a really well-done video!
Taking boarders was also a great way for widows to make a living and maintain a household.
My grandpa lived as a boarder with a widow during grad school in Cleveland in 1950.
, do you know if widows used to be more numerous?
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dandelion georgism 
@DolphinMossad
It’s cool to read the biography of basically any self-made person prior to 1980 and get to the part where they arrive in the big city and rent a cheap room in a boarding house/residence hotel for a few dollars a week, a form of housing that basically doesn’t exist anymore.
I would have been happy to live somewhere like this when I was in the DC area.
We definitely need housing like this to return. Low cost and provides upward mobility.
Everybody doesn't need their own personal house.
Yes, I always wondered this as I lived in one in London the first 6 months I was there in my early 20’s. They’re called bedsits. I never understood why they didn’t have the same here in NYC.
Were they banned because the need for them declined due to the Johnson-Reed Act? Isn't the 1830s essentially when mass migration began in this country?
Wealth distribution issues, that class of people disappeared from the work force, were priced out of home and land ownership and are what we consider homeless now, so the boarding houses are gone but the need for shelters skyrocketed.
They’re all on college campuses in the Midwest. I lived in a old boarding house that was built in 1908
I would also recommend checking out the International Student House of Washington!
I wonder if the lack of these is one of the reasons we are so stripped of community now
Oh! I lived there as an intern and grad student. Lot's of good memories!
1300 for a fckng room and shared bathroom with no privacy except your dorm which I assume is also shared. A STEAL??? Muricans
So we have the zoning laws to blame for the lack of privately owned cheap boarding houses.
Landlords suffer if young people get an opportunity to save for a home. Give the landlord 60% of your salary and stop trying to make your life better you ungrateful selfish scum.