Housing Crunch Officially a Squeeze

In an effort to encourage construction of more affordable housing, LA city zoning officials are considering increasing downtown residential density to allow units as small as 250-square-feet.

The tiny apartment is a fairly new concept in Southern California, which
has a long history of suburban sprawl and larger spaces.


But in New York, Boston, San Francisco and many European and Asian cities,
residents have squeezed into tiny apartments for decades, usually because the
lure of the downtown area is so great — and the prices for larger places so
high.


Gretchen Broussard, who co-owns Tiny Living, a Manhattan store that sells
furnishings for small spaces, lived in a 200-square-foot apartment in that New
York borough until five years ago."


I couldn't even turn around in the space," Broussard said. "I maxed out
every inch of the wall space, mounted everything to get it off the floor …"