As city officials continue to seek new ways to increase affordable housing, one initiative has some residents a bit nervous.
In response, officials are extending the timeline for residents to learn about and respond to a co-living initiative draft proposal.
“Co-living offers tenants a private bedroom suite as well as access to communal areas like kitchen and living spaces. Suites do not include separate cooking facilities and may or may not have a private bathroom. Co-living is one tool for the City to begin addressing housing equity, supporting the continuation of existing market affordable units, and streamlining the development process,” according to Alexandria officials.
Co-living may also be called rooming and boarding houses or single room occupancy.
However, some residents have voiced concern that co-living arrangements will turn into flop houses or places where a dozen people share a three-bedroom home.
One Alexandria resident wrote on Facebook, “It is precisely like the SROs we all fought to get rid of in the late 70s and early 80s. People would buy large houses in places like Del Ray and turn the houses into nothing but SROs and then let the properties slide into serious disrepair. We bought one of those Del Ray homes at it took years to repair.”
Increasingly, developers are getting interested in this space. Private companies are buying homes in residential areas to rent out as co-living arrangements, or paying homeowners to sign on with their service.
In Atlanta, a service called PadSplit works with homeowner and helps connect roommates to opportunities. For all of its success stories, however, the company is in legal trouble reportedly for creating unsafe conditions. In California, HubHaus offered similar services but shut down after being unable to make the numbers work.
Still, many more companies are considering the business model, which can be more profitable than renting a home to a single family. Those companies say the arrangements help solve an affordable housing crisis, help individuals save money for their own apartments later on, offer flexible terms for renters and boost the local economy.
Alexandria residents are invited to offer comments on the co-living raft policy recommendations through Sept. 5 by clicking here. The Planning Commission and City Council will consider a final draft recommendation sometime this fall.
In addition, city officials through the Alexandria Library system will host a virtual presentation on co-living on Tuesday, Aug. 24. Residents can register to attend the event here.
