The Faces Behind Boston’s Mini-Apartment Movement
Though Seaport’s Innovation District is the current face of Boston’s micro-unit trend, many in the Hub have long desired “tiny living.’’
Micro apartments — units smaller than 450 square feet – are in hot demand in South Boston’s Innovation District, the only area in the Hub where the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) lets developers build such small units.
But these apartments also have sky-high rents, so local proponents of “tiny living’’ are finding alternate micro-housing models while architects encourage the city to change its minimum unit size requirements throughout Boston.
Martin lives in a 350-square-foot apartment in Allston, and suspects the teeny unit was probably “grandfathered in’’ to the city’s housing stock. “I don’t actually have that many belongings, so it’s the perfect compromise,’’ Martin said of his living space.
There are approximately 300 micro units constructed or under construction in Seaport, and many rent for upwards of $2,000 per month. But a quick search on any local real estate site shows that Boston already has quite a few “micro apartments’’ up for grabs in Back Bay, the South End, and Fenway, for example.
“What we really intended when we started the innovation housing unit experience was that we’d incentivize building smaller units because they could be constructed, leased, and rented at a lower price,’’ Martin said of the BRA’s initial push for micro units in 2010. “But we were surprised the level of demand was so high for these, so the prices were higher than we expected.’’
While the average household size in Boston is two people, one-bedroom units make up only 25 percent of the housing stock, according to the 2013 U.S. census. The city could use more single-bedroom units, and micro-sized ones could be developed and rented at a relatively low cost in underdeveloped areas of Boston like Dorchester, Somerville, and East Boston, Hodges said.
Like Martin, Hodges lives in an older studio outside Seaport that falls into the “micro apartment’’ category. She shares a 375-square-foot studio in Fenway with her husband, and said affordability and access to urban amenities is what draws her to micro living. “Being able to live in the city and close to all the urban amenities — I think that’s the best draw.’’
Roy has been an advocate for Boston’s micro unit trend ever since former Mayor Thomas Menino asked Roy what “innovation housing’’ in Seaport should look like in 2012.
She created a policy statement for city officials that requested a portion of new developments in the Innovation District be affordable, through less parking and smaller units with more communal social space. The city took Roy’s advice and let developers “play around’’ with micro units, but many ended up being unaffordable, she said.
“It’s a free market. I can’t control the social policy of who lives in them,’’ Roy said. “The push for me is to create more of them. When the supply goes up, the price will start to come down.’’
Through further policy change and education, Roy said she’d like to see the minimum unit size abolished, so developers outside Seaport can experiment with inexpensive micro-unit design. “This is not at all new, and it’s not going to pass,’’ Roy said. “If you don’t want to live in one that’s fine for me. That’s okay. But then to say that there has to be metric for everyone else is where I argue with you.’’
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