affordable urban living – eventually

The response was overwhelmingly positive, said Tamara Roydirector of a design company Stantec. Rather than encouraging people to decide whether they would like to live in such housing, they asked: “Do you know anyone who could use this as a type of housing?” »

“Almost everyone could,” Roy said. “Either they said, ‘Yeah, my elderly mother could.’ Or: “Yes, I’m divorced. » Or the students who simply said: “Yes, I don’t want to have roommates anymore. »

Nicknamed “the mother of the micro unit,” Roy was an early proponent of creating compact living opportunities in Boston. In 2018, after the UHU tour, the Boston Planning Department has given the green light to a compact living pilot program to test living in smaller neighborhoods.

“We worked with the city of Boston to create these compact living regulations that changed the (square footage) down and basically made it more like an open thing,” Roy said. “You just had to show it to the Boston planning department, look at the design and make sure you met certain requirements: there was storage, there was a decent kitchen, there was a place to put your bed and there was some amount of storage. light and air.

Six years later, micro-units have proliferated throughout Boston, such as those for rent in Boston. Micropolis at Beacon Hill and the studios of Troy Boston in the South End – but they haven’t quite reached the UHU goal yet. That’s because most micro apartments for rent today aren’t exactly affordable. A 250-square-foot unit in Micropolis, for example, brings in more than $2,000 a month.

The driving force behind building micro-units, Roy said, was to help alleviate the city’s housing crisis. They were intended to increase supply to meet Boston’s overwhelming demand for housing, as well as to create housing for individuals to live on their own at an affordable price. To achieve this, Roy said, it is necessary to build subsidized and affordable social housing in small units. In co-living models, apartment residents share common spaces such as kitchens.

By definition, a micro apartment is generally smaller than what is stipulated in the zoning codes of a particular city or town. They can range from approximately 250 to 450 square feet. Many micro apartments maximize their square footage with features like foldable furnitureMurphy beds, built-in nooks for dining or sleeping, and unique floor plans.

“There’s always a niche for this (lifestyle) where someone says, ‘I don’t need a lot of space.’ Frankly, I’m always on the go,” said Demetrios Salpoglou, CEO of Boston stampsan online apartment marketplace.

In Troy Boston, Stantec-designed studios are approximately 420 square feet and offer combined living and sleeping spaces.

“Most people would walk in (to UHU) and say, ‘Wow, it’s bigger than the apartment I have, and it’s better planned,’” Roy said.

Smaller homes can also have advantages. Even though there is a lack of space, there is also less cleaning and maintenance to be done, Salpoglou said. Utility bills will be lower and you’ll likely buy fewer “stuff” like furniture, fixtures and items that could be clutter. “There’s no doubt they have an added benefit,” he said.

Micro apartments make sense for a city like Boston, which has a low vacancy rate. “The appetite for housing is there,” says Salpoglou. “And we’re going to see more micro apartments come onto the market.”

Roy highlights the upcoming opening of a micro-unit in New Bedford, based on the Boston UHU, called A customs place. Built in partnership with the New Bedford Housing Authoritythe building offers 45 mixed housing units and a ground floor with shops. The resort’s 14 studios, which are income-capped, range in price from $975 to $1,350 per month.

It’s the kind of project that Roy believes could benefit Boston, as well as more co-living models. Both would serve demographics such as singles and couples, graduate students, single parents, divorcees, seniors, artists and recent immigrants, who make up many groups currently excluded from Boston’s housing stock.

“To achieve this, there has to be a way for the city and state to subsidize nonprofit development,” Roy said. “It’s necessary for the workforce, for people who don’t make $100,000 a year and just need a place to live.”

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