Early in the classic film The Blues Brothers, Elwood takes his recently paroled brother, Jake, back to his Chicago apartment. It’s a small room next to the “L” tracks, with kitchen and bathroom facilities shared with the other tenants. (I guess Elwood has his own toaster oven, but that’s hardly a kitchen.) Anyway, it’s the type of affordable room for rent that used to be common in American cities. Now, however, housing arrangements like that are illegal almost everywhere (with a few exceptions). St. Louis, Kansas City, and other Missouri towns should legalize them again. (Check out this example ordinance from the St. Louis County suburb of St. John which defines “rooming house,” or a “boarding house,” and clearly states no new ones are allowed in the city after 1963.)
This topic is in the news now because of a lawsuit against a St. Louis landlord illegally renting out very cheap homes to struggling people in St. Louis. This post is not a defense of that landlord. Many of the places she was renting were condemned, had no utilities, or had other problems. The court system will presumably deal with those issues.
But it is worth noting that these cheap homes—some of which did have utilities and were suitable for habitation, even if just barely—were being used for inexpensive shelter by previously homeless people. That’s a good thing. Have you noticed how cold it has been lately?
Yes, landlords should keep their buildings up to code, and things such as working utilities and sanitation systems are all properly part of various building codes. However, zoning laws almost everywhere (including in much of the City of St. Louis) require apartments to be rented out whole, meaning every unit must have its own kitchen, bathroom, etc. Obviously, that is how most people want to live. But we made it illegal in much of the country to have a cheaper option, like Elwood Blues had, to live in a large building where you rent by the room and share other facilities with the other tenants. The elimination of the housing market option for these types of facilities is one of the reasons for the increased homeless population in our country.
Nobody is saying rooming houses like these are nice (I also saw Taxi Driver). But they are an affordable option that some people will choose that is far better than being homeless. I am not suggesting that boarding house–type facilities should be allowed everywhere. But blanket zoning prohibitions against them in Missouri cities are harmful and should be repealed.
