What if cities finally legalized adult dorms?
Since the pandemic, cities across the country have faced a frustrating contradiction. On one hand, housing costs have soared, worsening homelessness and pushing residents to the edges of metropolitan areas. On the other hand, the rise of remote work has left once-thriving downtown office buildings standing eerily empty, with the national office vacancy rate set to reach nearly 20 percent by this year’s end, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE.
The US is estimated to be short upward of 4 million to 7 million homes, fueling an affordability crisis that both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have talked about on the campaign trail. The median national rent hit $1,411 over the summer, marking a 22 percent increase since January 2020. More than half of tenants are now cost-burdened, meaning they spend over 30 percent of their income on rent — a record high.
At first glance, repurposing these vacant office buildings in downtown areas — close to public transit and local retail shops struggling with reduced foot traffic — seems like a perfect solution.
