Single Room Occupancy (SRO) housing strategy

Single room occupancy housing provides basic, independent housing that is affordable and accessible to people experiencing homelessness and households with very low incomes who can afford modest rents. This type of housing, once more common in the Twin Cities region, offers quality private single rooms, shared kitchens, and shared or individual bathrooms.

As our region continues to face significant affordable housing challenges, SRO housing presents an opportunity to increase the supply of dignified housing affordable to people at the lowest income levels, which is currently the largest gap in the housing market.

There is an estimated 73,660 households in Hennepin County with incomes below 30% of the area median income, but only 14,192 housing units affordable to them. Three out of five households with incomes at this level pay more than half of their monthly income toward housing costs, putting them at risk of being unable to afford to meet other basic needs like food, transportation, and healthcare. Households of color are disproportionately represented in these groups, and increasing the supply of SRO is one tool to reduce housing disparities in the county.

To develop strategies to create and support single room occupancy housing, the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners created the Hennepin County Single Room Occupancy Task Force on November 3, 2020. You can view the report of the task force below.

From 2020 through 2024, Hennepin County acquired, rehabilitated, and activated several properties following recommendations of the Single Room Occupancy Task Force Report (PDF, 6MB). As of the end of 2024, two of those properties have been fully leased, and others are in various stages of development. Hennepin County does not own or operate these properties. For information on housing resources, please visit our Homelessness and housing resources page.