Can single-room apartments work in LV as in San Diego?

Denise Cardinal

Saturday, Aug. 2, 1997 | 3:31 a.m.

SAN DIEGO -- On the outside, the Windsor Hotel in downtown San Diego looks like it did when it was built more than 70 years ago. Four stories high, the building's restored moldings and old-fashioned fire escapes give it an antique feel that is mirrored in the neighboring Victorian-style structures.

But on the inside, the building has been renovated to house 32 single-room-occupancy units, commonly referred to as SROs. The rooms, which have communal bathrooms and showers, can be rented for $236 to $265 per month.

SROs like the Windsor have been part of San Diego's downtown redevelopment since the early '80s. Though the rooms aren't luxurious by any means, they're known to be clean and cheap -- luring low-income downtown workers from the more expensive suburbs.

The city of Las Vegas is hoping that SROs will do the same for its own downtown redevelopment efforts. On the block between Stewart and Ogden avenues and Eighth and Ninth streets a federally funded, $10 million SRO will be built by a San Diego developer, the Tom Hom Group. The new building, when finished next year, will have 320 rooms that rent for $475 a month.

The benefits of such a project are obvious. As the city grows and more casinos are built, the need for affordable housing becomes even greater.

Countering stigmas

And though there is a stigma associated with low-income housing, the Tom Hom Group says this SRO will have strict security. Will Newbern, president of the firm, said visitors will be required to show picture ID and can enter only through a front door. Security gates will restrict the structure's parking lot and rooms will be accessed through electronically coded card keys that can be changed if stolen or lost.

The company's two SROs in San Diego have similar security measures. There are surveillance cameras in the hallways and visitors aren't allowed to walk through the structure without being let in by a resident.

"We don't have any problems with any of the residents," said a worker at a plasma donation center near the Peachtree Inn, one of the Tom Hom Group's SROs in San Diego. "Really, it's not a problem."

The planned SRO in Las Vegas also will require residents to receive weekly maid service, ensuring that the structure won't suffer from inconsiderate tenants. The firm's San Diego complexes have similar policies and are kept neat-looking on the inside and out.

"They're safe," said Robert Davis, resident of Trolley Court, one of the Tom Hom Group's projects in San Diego. "The rooms aren't that big but they're nice. I can afford it on my pension."

For these reasons, Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese, whose ward the project is in, fully supports the project.

"They had to sell me on it," he said. "But the area that we're building it in, there is a need for housing. And there hasn't been any new development there for years."

Neighborhood woes

But the neighbors of the complex aren't convinced. Worried about their neighborhood, which already has problems with prostitution and drug trafficking that was squeezed out of the Fremont Street area, some of the residents have staged protest marches on the site.

"I'm not against SROs or apartments, I just don't see how it's going to improve our quality of life," said Mabel Murray, a resident of Stewart Avenue and owner of Trudi's Fur and Leather, which is next to the project's site.

Murray's concerns aren't necessarily unfounded. The Tom Hom Group's complexes in San Diego do have people loitering not just in the lobbies, but on the stairs and sidewalks of the structures, some of them panhandlers.

But the issues with the projects go beyond neighborhood complaints. All the local TV news stations in San Diego have done some sort of expose on SROs -- usually involving drug use and prostitution.

"Those were poorly managed complexes," responded Newbern, the Tom Hom Group president, who thought some of the coverage was unfair.

According to Dennis Campbell, project development manager for San Diego's redevelopment agency, the reason SROs work well in San Diego is because they are part of an overall renovation of downtown areas. For instance, apartment buildings next to Peachtree Inn are newly painted and landscaped. The Windsor is part of the whole street's renovation, including storefronts and restaurants.

But with the Stewart Avenue project, there aren't any other renovation plans under way in the immediate area.

"One thing the city said it's going to do for redevelopment is decrease high-density living," Murray said. "Now they're going to increase. The entire zoning board voted it down unanimously and they're still going ahead with it."

Not to mention, the $475-a-month rent is hardly a bargain when compared with some of the area's other apartments. And the price is almost twice that of some San Diego SROs, leaving residents to wonder if the building will end up empty.

Another snag: In San Diego, the SROs are always located in high-density housing areas with lots of mixed use. Commercial buildings are either directly adjacent or underneath the apartments and there are no single-family homes within at least a three-block radius.

In Las Vegas, the project is less than one block from single-family homes that happen to be some of the oldest in the city. It's this proximity that has neighbors the most upset.

Other options

Some of San Diego's redevelopment victories are due to the addition of 4,000 living units -- including SROs. In the Stewart Avenue project, Las Vegas wants to model its redevelopment plans after proven successes.

"There is a need for it," Reese said. "For those who work minimum-wage jobs and need a nice, safe place to live, this is it."

However, the single-room units aren't the city's panacea. San Diego used SROs in combination with historic preservation of homes and commercial buildings. It also converted warehouses into loft housing and artist's studios, helping developers get loans for the structures.

Though there were some naysayers in the beginning of San Diego's redevelopment, it's important to note that before city officials did anything, they met with neighborhood boards made up of residents and business owners.

"We have residents' input throughout the whole process," Campbell said. "The neighborhood boards are consulted every step of the way. They have the power to advise the City Council, just like the redevelopment agency."

With that kind of grass-roots input comes local support. Which, in the case of Las Vegas, might be just as badly needed for redevelopment efforts as affordable housing. Just ask the developers themselves.

"We're disappointed that the neighbors were against the project," Newbern said last year when the council approved the building. "It would be nice if we could come in without controversy."

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