The next time you think you don't have enough space...

Yes, indeed! 280 feet would probably be luxurious!

I know that in Vancouver there are still a few of the "skid row type hotels" that have these SROs, as you mention. There are no facilities in these rooms, but folks often put an illegal hotplate in them. The washrooms are of course communal - one to a floor.

With the Olympics coming here next year, some of these hotels are trying to push out the poor people, to renovate and capitalise on tourist dollars.

Looking at these pictures again, I can see where a person could be happy in them. These first 2 are neat and tidy, bed, fridge, hot plate, TV. You create a simple life, or keep it simple. You store your clothes, prioritize your needs.






Now these 2 rooms are a mess, too much stuff, and would be suffocating.






Don't any of you remember living in a dorm room? I remember mine being probably 150-180 square feet for 2 people, and I had enough room. I mean, you were in class much of the time, work...you studied in bed as well as slept there. No big deal.
Judging from the layout of the 2nd image, I'd guess that room is 150 sq feet-ish, for 2 people.

I could do it if I had a window. Even a window with a crappy view.

I notice that many have bunk beds, even though there's only one person living in the room. I suppose the upper is used just for storage.

Grandchildren visits?

Yeah, I guess that would work. Hadn't thought of that. Seeing that there are a lot of older folks, makes sense.

Yeah, that's what it seems to be used for mostly.

There's a lot of wasted verticle space in those rooms. A lot of that could be storage.

At one point when I was renting out my Texas house, and living in Fla., I came out to Texas to check things out, get some stuff done. The tenant had been an aquaintance of mine before renting, so she said just stay here in the house. I had stored all my texas belongs in one of the spare bedrooms, and when I arrived, I said I'd just sleep in there on the couch. I mean, it was for 3 nights, and I wasn't spending a lot of time there anyway. I had a lot of running around to do.

She said "you can't sleep in there, there's no room" I said "sure there is" and just moved a pile of stuff off the couch in there to create an empty 5'2" space. Once I closed my eyes, it didn't matter that I was surrounded by boxes.