City of San Francisco says it's illegal to live in a box

Illustrator Peter Berkowitz is avoiding San Francisco's high rent by paying only $400 to live in a box in a friend's living room. Illustrator Peter Berkowitz is avoiding San Francisco's high rent by paying only $400 to live in a box in a friend's living room. Photo: Peter Berkowitz Photo: Peter Berkowitz Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close City of San Francisco says it's illegal to live in a box 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

Last month, the story of a 25-year-old man who's living inside a plywood box parked in his friend's living room became the latest installment in San Francisco's crazy housing market.

In a city where the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is currently $3,590, Peter Berkowitz's tale of paying only $400 a month in rent and squeezing into some 32-square-feet of space became the stuff of legend.

"It fits all my needs where I have a private, sound-proof place where I can keep my belongings," Berkowitz said in an interview with SFGate. "I'm saving thousands of dollars a year. It's a solution that works for me. I don't want to spend so much money on rent."

After media outlets across the country covered the story and the London Guardian ran an editorial by Berkowitz, he began hearing from people who wanted to live in similar humble, inexpensive accommodations. Berkowitz announced in a story on Hoodline this week that he would begin selling custom pods.

Those plans were quickly stopped by the San Francisco's chief housing inspector Rosemary Bosque who told Hoodline that "pods are illegal and a violation of housing, building, and fire safety codes."

"He would have to completely open it up or look at something different, such as a bed with a frame, with curtains, something that was open to the room," Bosque said in the Hoodline interview. "This would be the case for anywhere in the country with respect to building and inhabitability codes."

As SFGate reported in an earlier story on March 30, 2016, Berkowitz could actually afford to pay more in rent. He's a successful illustrator who has been busy with freelance work ever since one of his cartoons made it into the New Yorker.

The thing is that he doesn't want to pour all of his money into high-priced San Francisco rent—and so that's why he came up with the idea for the pod.

Berkowitz moved into his box in early March. He built the structure with friends and the highest quality plywood he could find at Home Depot. The result is a simple box that's eight-feet long, four-and-a-half-feet tall and wide enough to accommodate a twin mattress. The box has a door, windows and a skylight. A desk folds down from the wall and over his lap when he wants to work on his illustrations in bed. Behind the headboard of his bed, there's space for his clothes, which are few. He says he owns only five pairs of pants and three pairs of shoes.

So far, he's finding the accommodations comfortable and says the only thing he'd do differently if he were to rebuild is make the box taller.

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Berkowitz was originally looking for a two-bedroom apartment with a friend. "It only took us a quick visit at Craigslist to realize that it was too expensive," he said.

He got the idea to build a structure that could be moved into an apartment with extra space and started emailing people on Craigslist, but nobody jumped on the opportunity. And then Berkowitz mentioned his plan to a friend living in a three-bedroom apartment with four other roommates and a spacious living room. "He was excited," Berkowitz said. "And the other roommates liked the idea because they are all now paying less rent."

Berkowitz doesn't think his situation is extreme. "I'm very happy living in this," he said. "I feel like what I'm doing is presented as this extreme action. I'm trying to do something less extreme. The people who are in really extreme situations are living on couches or in partitions."

He added, "I've made something beautiful that's a pleasant and serene space to live in. It hasn't changed my life that much. It's very much a comfortable bedroom. In my pod I don't have any roommates. When I had a regular bedroom, I'd spend most of my time on my bed anyway. I have a full apartment I have access to. If I'm going to be reading or doing illustrations, I might come into here to focus."