A company that rents “sleeping pods” in downtown San Francisco for $700 a month has had 300 people apply for its remaining 17 beds, the company’s CEO said.
Brownstone Shared Housing describes its mission as “providing low cost housing in the most expensive cities”. Its bunkbed-style “pods” measure approximately 3.5ft-by-4ft-by-6.5ft, large enough to fit a twin mattress. The pods come with privacy curtains, inside lighting and charging ports.
A year ago, Brownstone’s sleeping pod facility, located in a former bank in downtown San Francisco, was flagged by the city’s department of building inspection for violating city codes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Thirteen residents continued to live in the building during the code-enforcement process, James Stallworth, the company’s CEO, said.
While the facility had its planning department application approved earlier this fall, as multiple local news outlets reported, that approval was later rescinded because of a misrepresentation Stallworth made on the application, Dan Sider, the planning department’s chief of staff, said.
The approval was rescinded over a misrepresentation of how many of the beds in the facility were deed-restricted affordable housing, Sider said.
“The building remains in violation of the planning and building codes, and while we continue to work with the proprietor to move his applications forward, we expect him to honor his agreement not to have new tenants move in until the issue is resolved, which should happen very soon,” Sider said.
“We’re trying to bring him across the finish line,” he added.
In a region wracked by an affordable housing crisis, but also seeing the draw of an artificial intelligence company gold rush, the demand for the $700 sleeping pods has been intense, with nearly 20 people applying for each remaining pod.
“Since it is affordable housing, we have to use the city of San Francisco’s process to fill some of the spots, but the rest are going to be filled through our online application process,” Stallworth said.
He said that the code-enforcement process, which involved transitioning the building in San Francisco’s struggling downtown from an office to a residential space, had been “really slow”, but that the company was working on opening a second, larger San Francisco pod location, with a total of 100 sleeping pods, “early next year”.
Sider, of the city’s planning department, pushed back on that characterization, saying that Stallworth had not submitted his application until the end of July this year.
The company also offers sleeping pods in Palo Alto, where a sleeping pod near Stanford University goes for $800 a month, including utilities. The rent also includes internet, utilities and access to shared bathrooms, storage and a shared kitchen.
This article was amended on 31 October 2024 to clarify that the city rescinded its approval of Brownstone Shared Housing’s application and the facility is not yet permitted to house additional tenants.
