San Francisco Proposes Tiniest Apartments


If you've already been storing your extra shoes in your oven because your studio apartment is too small to live in, just take this into consideration.

In San Francisco, the minimum size for a residence is already a pint-sized 290-square-feet. But on Tuesday, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors will be proposing changes to the city's building code to allow for "shoe box homes," literally.

Some of them would only have 150 feet of living space, 220 when you factor in the bathroom, kitchen and closet. That is even smaller than the 275 to 300-square-foot apartment size recently proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg for New York. Proponents of the idea are in favor of its affordability, but opponents are understandably fearful of uncomfortable "shoe box" style living.

The new mini-apartments are being proposed to accommodate residents who can no longer afford to live there because of all the growth in the tech sector.

The micro-units will probably go for $1,200 to 1,700 a month," Supervisor Scott Wiener, who drafted the legislation, told the Los Angeles Times. Wiener also noted that smaller units will not only allow for cheaper housing options, but more of them. The average San Francisco studio apartment goes for $2,075, according to the real estate service RealFacts.

Boston and New York are other cities where residents have been forced to get creative with their tiny living spaces. The New York Times reported Friday about several people who live in studio apartments smaller than Mayor Bloomberg's minimum square footage that say "the experience can be liberating. If you downsize your stuff along with your expectations of square footage, you really can do more with less."

It seems the smaller the space you have to work with, the bigger your imagination and creativity becomes to accommodate it. In July, ABC's Amy Robach reported on several examples of people living large in tiny spaces. Take a look: