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By Thom Nickels
On Craigslist I also noticed a lot of temporary room requests, something that was common when I was a student in Baltimore and lived in a rooming house on the wrong side of town.
Across the hall from me in that house was a man who lived in a closet with a glass door labeled, Fire Escape. He had a static AM radio that played day and night. The entire house smelled like stale cinnamon buns and old tobacco. My little room included a hot plate which smelled like burning rubber whenever I turned it on. Later I lived in a boardinghouse where the landlady would sort through my mail and read the letters and the papers on my desk and then gossip about what she read to a neighbor friend of hers. One day I came home from work to find her going through my underwear drawer. What was she looking for in there?
Rooming houses in the old sense of the word don’t really exist today but there is a call for their return. In the 1970s, the Philadelphia Inquirer had daily listings of rooms for rent. Apartment buildings like the Adelphia at 13th and Chestnut had efficiency apartments — a small refrigerator, sink and stove — for $400 a month. People — students and others — coming into Center City for the first time could quickly rent a room here until they “seasoned” and were ready to upgrade.
Why It Matters. Philadelphia Citizen reported in 2016 that the median city rent was somewhere in the $1,200/month range, “thereby imposing an annual $14,400 cost on the median Philly household income of $41,233 — which means the average Philadelphian is spending nearly 35 percent of their annual income on rent, and rent alone. That’s less money for a lot of essential things.” Average rents in Center City in 2024 began at $1,099 (and these were humble apartments) but skyrocketed near and above the $2,000 range, depending on the neighborhood. For a furnished room in Chinatown (again, from Craigslist) you can expect to pay $750 per month.
The lack of affordable housing in Philadelphia is daunting. Way back in 2017, Curbed Philadelphia reported that, “Philly needs to build more than 38,000 apartments by 2030 to meet its rising demand, and they need to be made available at all price points.”
At all price points? Really?
For the last ten years or so a typical 25-year old cannot afford a newly constructed apartment in Center City. If Center City prices are off the charts, then the solution is to move further away from the center of the city.
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