Boxed out: man evicted after $400 rented box deemed illegal

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Boxed out: man evicted after $400 rented box deemed illegal

Peter Berkowitz, whose story of living in a wooden box amid
San Francisco housing crisis went viral, forced out after city
inspectors ruled it a fire hazard

Sam Levin in San Francisco
Wednesday 13 April 2016 14.09 BST

The San Francisco man who received national attention for living in a wooden box in a friend’s living room violated local housing laws and created a major fire hazard, according to city officials, who have pressured him to take down his pod and move out.

Peter Berkowitz’s story went viral after he explained in an op-ed for the Guardian that his solution to the city’s housing crisis was to pay $400 a month to live in a tiny pod that he built in his friend’s place – a semi-private wooden home with enough room for a fold-down desk, a mini bed and a reading light.

That solution, it turns out, was illegal and, according to city inspectors, very dangerous.

“The housing codes, the fire codes and the building codes are fairly restrictive in terms of what you can do inside, in terms of coming up with another enclosed bedroom,” said William Strawn, director of public affairs for San Francisco’s department of building inspection. “With these types of, what I’ll call creative efforts to try and cope with what everybody recognizes is a tough housing market here, you still have to follow some basic safety … rules.”

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/13/san-francisco-new-home-rented-box-illegal

[Demonaut]

1. saw that coming

[Baobab]

22. Looks like the "cage people" of Hong Kong who live in rabbit hutch size cages stacked two or three .

high, roughly one by one by two meters -

https://www.google.com/search?q=cage+people+hong+king&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

They don't have solid walls, they are cages. So they have better ventilation but no privacy.

[Marrah_G]

24. omg....one of the captions said the guy has lived there 30 years

[HDSam]

2. I'm a little confused about this

The box isn't an alteration to the building structure, it's not as if they divided an existing room by adding a permanent wall to create another bedroom, this is effectively a couch and a desk in someone's living room.

[TipTok]

3. Likely tough to get out if there was a fire...

... tucked away in a corner with a tiny door.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. ^^This^^

As an enclosed sleeping quarter there are minimum requirements for egress and this doesn't even come close to meeting them. Also, the box may obstruct an existing egress (hard to tell.) Construction materials may also be an issue.

[Mosby]

16. A lot of large furniture gets built on the spot

It's not like you could move that massive Sauder or IKIA entertainment center or bookshelf in case of a fire.

It's a big wooden box inside an apartment.

The whole thing stinks of government meddling.

[Gormy Cuss]

23. No one's sleping in the entertainment center

and if it's illegally blocking an egress it would also be subject to citation.

But yeah, health and safety codes are government meddling.

[lpbk2713]

5. Someone gets a place to stay and the city gets no tax revenue from it.

Fairly straightforward why one of the costliest cities in the US acted on it.

[yellowcanine]

8. It's a box with a tiny exit blocking a window of the room.

Two for one fire hazard.

[Rex]

19. He is not paying any taxes, so he must be sent out to live on the streets.

With the other folks that don't pay any taxes. That is our standard in America and as you can see some people love the idea of making someone homeless...bless their tiny little hearts!

[yellowcanine]

4. It looks like a friggin fire hazard to me.

Sometimes we have regulations to protect people from themselves. Big old box blocking one of the windows in the room. And sleeping in a big old box with a reading light and one tiny exit. What could possibly go wrong?

[B2G]

6. This guy's never heard of room dividers? nt

[TBF]

7. "Little houses" are NOT the solution

we need to stop the farce that is capitalism and redistribute wealth (and eventually this needs to be a global endeavor). There should not be people in mansions, with multiple homes, etc. while others don't even have a decent living space. Our current methods of allocating resources are unacceptable and unsustainable.

[jwirr]

14. This little house does not make sense to me but you cannot

condemn the whole movement. I for one am tired of living with relatives where nothing is for me - can't use the kitchen because they work nights and sleep days - etc. I am at present designing a small house the size of a one car garage. It will be safe and have plenty of room for one person as well as room for my great grandchildren to visit. In fact they are all going to want little houses of their own.

[snooper2]

9. looks like somebody just wants attention LOL- Hey, can I build a box in your house and live in it?

[edgineered]

10. Well that does it.

Time to clean out all the aerosol cans from the bathroom and the kitchen. If a spark from an electrical short set one of them off the peanut butter would be next, followed by the cooking oil and everything else. When are we going to wake up and move back into stone caves?

[treestar]

12. Why the box?

It's not necessary - just have a bed in the living room.

[Mariana]

20. Privacy I guess.

Better to put up some moveable divider screens or curtains or something like that to separate his space from the rest of the room. If they can construct that box, they can surely rig up something safer for him.

[treestar]

21. good point

it's making his own little space - surely there is a way to do it that is not a fire hazard.

[hedgehog]

13. Turn this around and imagine the furor if say migrant

workers were forced to double up this way. On second thought, they probably are!

[jwirr]

15. In shacks that are never even inspected for safety issues.

[meow2u3]

17. The real problem is the exorbitant rent charged by greedy landlords

who want to make a quick million yesterday.

San Francisco is the epicenter of greedhead tech millionaires trying to price the poor and middle class out of the city. I think there ought to be laws prohibiting unreasonably high rents just to keep out "undesirables" and criminal penalties to enforce an anti-greed law.

[Marrah_G]

25. When the tech bubbles blows there, there will be no one to pay those huge rents.

[Rex]

18. All that bullshit, because the city wasn't getting any tax money. How pathetic.

So now instead of the guy perhaps burning to death inside his now defunct home, he can freeze to death in the coldness out on the streets. With certainty!

So we think it better to live in a cardboard box on the streets, then in a wooden box inside someones house. Got it. Good to know.

But but...codes and laws! Fuck off with that grade A bullshit.