Why Have Housing When You Can Have Micro-Housing

If you’ve lived in a microapartment for two years, having enough room for a sofa and a table and a desk feels like a luxury. I was sitting on my sofa the other night, looking at my kitchen and my table and my vase of flowers and thinking about how incredibly lucky I was to have all of this, and how I could see myself living here for years because I finally had as much space as I needed.

Then a friend sent me a New York Times article about Carmel Place, NYC’s first micro-housing development. As the NYT explains:

The development, previously called My Micro NY, has tapped into a desire common among many singles to live alone. The building includes 14 units designated as affordable, for which some 60,000 people applied, or nearly 4,300 applicants per apartment. The lottery for these units was held earlier this month, and winners will be informed in January. The building is set to open on Feb. 1.

I love the phrase “desire common among many singles to live alone.” It’s like the author could have included a link to another NYT piece on roommate horror stories, or at least referenced the constant low-level stress of sharing space with a rotating ensemble of roommates, significant others, pets, roommates’ friends who are staying over for just a few nights, and so on. (If they didn’t have a specific story in mind, they’re welcome to quote one of ours. I recommend Lisa Farlow’s 38 Roommates in 10 Years.)

Anyway. Most of the 14 affordable units cost $950 a month; Curbed has the details on the “unaffordable” units:

Of those 12 units, the lowest priced unit measures 265 square feet and is on the third floor. It will list for $2,540. Furnished units will include a pull-down bed, a sofa (that becomes part of that pull-down bed), plus cabinets and tables. The kitchen is really a kitchenette, with a two-burner stove, mini refrigerator, and a microwave instead of an oven. Going unfurnished can mean a substantial monthly savings. A 355-square-foot furnished unit on the second floor will go for $2,910, but an unfurnished 360-square-foot unit on the same floor will go for $2,750.

These tenants also get access to what the NYT calls “weekly housekeeping by Hello Alfred, an app-based personal butler service.” I’ll let TechCrunch explain just what Hello Alfred is:

Alfred is a service layer that sits on top of your usual on-demand services (groceries, laundry, packages, etc.) and coordinates those services together through a weekly visit from your very own, trusted Alfred. This person has a set of your keys and over time learns how long it takes for you to go through a carton of milk or where your dry cleaning goes in your closet. Instead of ending up with grocery bags and boxes, you come home to a closet full of clean clothes, a stocked fridge, and sorted mail.

I don’t know about you, but the thought of someone with keys to my home monitoring my milk consumption makes my skin crawl.

Still, this seems to be where we are headed, those of us living in urban areas: microapartments with personal housekeeping services, “dorms for grownups” with shared kitchens, stackable smarthomes that fit on a trailer and can move from job to job with you, and this NYT article about small residences for the elderly:

Each home houses only 10 elderly people, and each person has a bedroom and bathroom. Ms. Larmor has private space, is able to order breakfast when she wants it and enjoys home-style cooking, including some of her favorites, like goulash and spaghetti with meatballs. Residents can gather around a fireplace in the common room, and Ms. Larmor enjoys chatting with aides in the open kitchen.

The cost of a 30-day stay in this “senior housing and care option?” $10,230.

Better choose the unfurnished Carmel Place microapartment, so you can start saving now.

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