Student Corner: Exploring Micro-Units: Part 1

Micro-units have emerged as a popular and affordable solution for housing needs across the United States. However, some have raised concerns that micro-units may be reminiscent of tenement houses of the 19th and early 20th centuries and lend themselves to the same crowding and health concerns. Additionally, there have been questions about whether micro-units should be considered affordable, and further wonder if they only work in markets that are supply-constrained, like New York City. This post will be the first of a two-part series, and will define what micro-units are, where they can be found, the problem they seek to address, and offer an example of a successful micro-unit project. What are Micro-Units? Micro-units in the U.S. are generally “a small studio apartment, typically less than 350 square feet, with a fully functioning and accessibility compliant kitchen and bathroom” (ULI, 2014). Multiple micro-units are built within a single structure (Infranca 2014, 54), and the size of what qualifies as a micro-unit highly depends upon the market in which it exists (ULI, 2014). Micro-units are sometimes confused with Single Room Occupancy units (SRO’s) which are large buildings consisting of several rooms with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities. SRO’s were prevalent up to the 1980’s, and primarily served those in the lowest income brackets of society (Padgett, et al, 2015). According to ULI, true micro-units are different than SRO’s in that micro-units have fully functioning kitchen and bathroom facilities within each unit, whereas SRO’s do not. Where are Micro-Units Located? Micro-units are emerging across the U.S., and are found almost exclusively in urban core [...]