Would you share a bathroom for $600 a month? Proposal to expand communal living will go before Delray Beach

Delray Beach city officials will consider the expansion of what may become an emerging affordable housing option to further help residents in a tight and expensive real estate market.

They’re called multi-tenant housing units, and these projects target people with very low incomes, a demographic often overlooked when addressing affordable housing needs. But these projects also contain a controversial feature: communal bathrooms and kitchens. The Delray Beach City Commission will consider the expansion of a current multi-tenant housing development during a workshop on Thursday afternoon.

Kurt Jetta, the president of Jetta Investment Company and the Florida Housing Innovations Council, is behind the proposal to expand. The 10-unit development sits at 105 NW Fifth Avenue in Delray Beach, made for people who want permanent housing but who make less than $35,000 a year.

This specific project has existed in Delray Beach since 1960, and now Jetta wants to request more units.

Each of the current 11 tenants has a bedroom, and they each share two bathrooms. They also only pay about $600 a month.

Multi-tenant housing units also don’t require government subsidies or tax breaks, unlike many other affordable housing projects or initiatives like the Live Local Act, a state-wide effort to provide incentives — in this case, tax breaks — to developers for creating housing with affordable units.

“We’re already getting calls from other governments wanting to know more,” Jetta said. “This is a national potential.”

But one of the main aspects of this type of housing development is also drawing concerns.

In a shared bathroom situation, people may worry about the risk of assault, Jetta said, as well as if it would be kept clean.

“There’s also this kind of cultural bubble mentality that everybody deserves a bathroom and a kitchen type of thing, which is fine; that is a great world to live in,” he said. “But that’s a studio apartment, and that’s $1,800.”

To ease some of those concerns, multi-use tenant housings, including the one in Delray, employ rigorous background checks for any prospective tenants and the use of advanced security systems.

The Delray Beach City Commission is open to conversations about the project, said Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston, but he also said this concept jumps “over a lot of solutions” and instead resorts to “a very extreme solution.”

Other options, such as micro-units, could be considered first to address the housing issue, he said, before allowing multi-tenant concepts in Delray Beach.

Some organizations though, like the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, support the project. Stephanie Immelman, the organization’s president, said a “definite need” exists in the community for a project such as this.

Beyond people who fall into a very low-income category, a multi-tenant housing project could help veterans, elderly residents who want to preserve their autonomy, or young people trying to save money and “get their foot on the property ladder,” she said.

“You do (that) when you’re in college; when you live in a dorm, it’s kind of similar to that,” Immelman said. “It’s a good option for lots of different audiences, really. It has to be supported by the people who live nearby and live in that community.”

“I think it’s a good option as long as the community supports it, and they do.”

Jetta said a dorm “would be a more extreme version” of multi-tenant housing type of living.

“Here, each person gets their own room, so they do have their privacy,” he said.

Jetta will present his proposal to the Delray Beach City Commissioners, who will discuss the viability of moving forward with it on Thursday.