Man Pays $500 A Month To Live In A Wooden ‘Pod’ In San Francisco

Live In A Wooden 'Pod'
Peter Berkowitz, a 25-year-old illustrator in San Francisco, built a wooden pod in his friends living room to save money on rent. He pays $400 a month in rent and an additional $108 to cover the $1,300 cost of building the pod. Photo by Peter Berkowitz/peteberk.com

SAN FRANCISCO, March 29 (UPI) — A man in San Francisco constructed a wooden “pod” in his friend’s living room in order to save money on rent.

Peter Berkowitz, a 25-year-old illustrator, shared a post to his blog explaining how he came to build and live in the wooden box.

“Three weeks ago, with the help of friends who had touched power tools before, I started building a pod for me to live out of in my friend’s living room,” he wrote.

Berkowitz pays $508 a month to live in the pod in the three bedroom apartment. $400 goes towards his rent and the additional $108 covers the $13,000 cost of constructing the pod.

He acknowledged the oddity of his living situation, but argued that pods could be a viable solution to high rent prices in San Francisco.

“Yes, living in a pod is silly,” he wrote. “But the silliness is endemic to San Francisco’s absurdly high housing prices – the pod is just a solution that works for me.”

In addition to saving him money on rent, Berkowitz described the pod as “the coziest bedroom I’ve ever had.” He said the fold down desk and slanted headboard helped make activities such as reading and working on his laptop comfortable.

“You can definitely hang out in there,” he told ABC News. “It’s an intimate space. The reason I thought I could make something I would like as much as any other bedroom is because the only things I do [in there] are read and use my computer.”

Berkowitz said that many tenants don’t utilize extra space in their apartments or homes to provide extra living space because partitions and other room dividers offer poor privacy can “ruin whatever room they’re in.”

“I think pods can provide a needed fix here. Yes the living room housing my pod is smaller – but it’s by no means ruined,” he wrote. “If pods can provide an attractive way to add a bedroom to an apartment, I think they could help a lot of people out.”

Berkowitz offered to provide advice to anyone interested in creating their own pod, and said he has received several responses.

“I’ve been getting a bunch of emails from people moving out and interested in building one,” he said. “It’s encouraging – a lot of positive feedback and a lot of people who want to figure out how to pay less rent.”

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