Atlanta?s PadSplit wants to creating affordable, shared living spaces for those who need it most Atticus LeBlanc, a Atlanta affordable housing developer, gets a fair amount of questions about PadSplit, his new housing concept that converts single-family homes into affordable shared living spaces.
Most ask him how it?s different than a traditional boarding house.
What?s the difference between hitchhiking and ride-hailing" he asks me when I pose the same question. ?It?s a question of legitimacy.?
LeBlanc believes the country has a serious affordable housing problem, and innovative solutions are needed. He believes the answer lies in well-run rooming houses, which give working Americans access to jobs and a safe, respectable place to stay at night. PadSplit takes existing single-family homes and converts them into a series of rentable single rooms with shared common space and bathroom. The concept doesn?t have the frills of a Common or WeLive, startups that have sprung up in expensive metros to cater to a mobile, creative class of millennial professionals.
But with locations near transit lines and rooms running for $435 to $650 a month?that includes cable, Wi-Fi, utilities, and laundry?PadSplits can help fill the gap in workforce housing, a commodity sorely lacking in many cities.
?I?ve seen a lot of coliving startups targeting millennial professionals in creative hotbed-type cities,? says LeBlanc. ?But I?ve always felt that those with the greatest need were w...