Recently it was revealed that a new housing development at Church and Market in San Francisco isn’t going to be typical apartments, but will instead be offered as “hotel style” or medium term apartments — or what we would have called corporate housing before Airbnb came along.
There has understandably been some hoopla about this. Most of us who live in the area thought this building would be normal long-term apartments, after all. As someone who lives only a few blocks away it definitely came as a surprise.
However, I’d also like to point out that medium-term rental housing fulfils a very real need. While Church and Market is a strange spot for this type of housing it’s not altogether a bad one, especially since it’s right outside a Muni Metro subway station.
Put yourself in someone else’s shoes for a moment and consider these scenarios:
- You’re in college or about to graduate and have landed an internship. It’s in a city you’re not sure you’d like to live in for the long term, so signing a year-long lease on an apartment isn’t for you.
- You’ve found a new job in an unfamiliar city — perhaps even an unfamiliar country — and you need a place to stay for a while while you get situated. Even if a hotel is an option financially, you’d prefer a “real” apartment until you find a place to stay long term.
Back in the day when most people worked at large corporations, folks in these situations would stay temporarily at corporate housing. Which is to say your employer would have spaces available at places nearby, sort of like a dorm or timeshare while you — as the new employee — would live for a month or three while you find a more permanent place to live.
These days though, well… times have changed. Interns and new employees are often left to find housing on their own, and that often means finding a room on Craigslist or Airbnb at a communal house; hardly ideal.
A year or so ago I worked with an intern who lived with roommates at an Airbnb in Daly City for an entire year — and it wasn’t even his first internship in the Bay Area! I wish I could say that was an extreme example, but in my experience it’s par for the course.
So before you get angry about some new medium-term housing development like this, take a moment to go meet those new neighbors if you can. Invite them for a cup of coffee — maybe at that new Verve Coffee across the street — and ask them to tell you their stories. I bet you’ll be surprised.