San Francisco building authorities have begun an investigation into Brownstone Shared Housing, a new startup offering “sleeping pods,” after a flurry of recent social media and local news reports that went viral.
“We are aware of the issue and have opened an investigation to determine if there is a code violation,” Patrick Hannan, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, said in an email to Forbes, who added that the agency would be conducting a “site visit” in the near future. The existence of the new investigation was first reported by the San Francisco Standard.
The startup, which has similar properties in other California cities, including Palo Alto, San Jose, and Bakersfield, did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
Brownstone Shared Housing’s tiny sleeping arrangements — essentially stacked, coffin-like bunks — cost $700 per month, inclusive of WiFi and other utilities. Each location also has shared cooking and living space. By comparison, the median rent for a one-bedroom in San Francisco is about $3,000, according to Zumper, a rental analytics firm.
The company, which received an undisclosed amount of funding from Scale VC (now known as Redbud VC) late last year, according to Pitchbook, said in a June 2023 tweet that the new San Francisco location opened that month and was its “biggest yet.” Redbud VC did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
A LinkedIn post from the time states that among its 28 tenants are “a recent college grad from Wisconsin who’s here to explore opportunities in San Francisco, a designer who works for a consulate, and the founder of an AI startup.”
The San Francisco location, which previously served as a bank branch of the San Francisco Fire Credit Union, is located at 12 Mint Plaza, near the Powell BART station in downtown. Real estate listings show that this location is zoned for office use, not residential.
This isn’t the first time that Brownstone has run into problems with municipal authorities. In 2022, Palo Alto’s Planning and Development Services cited the owner of the house that Brownstone had leased and converted on Ramona St., for numerous code violations, according to the Palo Alto Weekly.
“I understand Brownstone Shared Housing is no longer associated with that property,” Jonathan Lait, Palo Alto’s director of planning and development department, said in an email to Forbes. “Any related violations were either corrected or addressed upon their departure.”
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