In the first half of the twentieth century (and before), the practice of “taking in lodgers” was an excellent solution to the problem of making ends meet. The genteel poor rented out rooms in their homes, and many offered communal meals (“room and board”—board meaning the table and hence food). People who owned large houses but lacked steady employment—widows, for example, who knew only homemaking—could maintain such facilities for renters and take in enough to support their families.

This practice has mostly fallen away, although bed-and-breakfast (B&B) establishments seem to have evolved from it for very short-term rentals.

At a time when many are becoming homeless and others are struggling to keep their homes, is it likely that we will see a rebirth of this practice, perhaps in a somewhat altered form? I saw a privately circulated message just this morning advertising a master bedroom for rent in a home in an upscale area, with full kitchen, yard, and laundry privileges.

Or are we on the whole too suspicious of one another these days to rent rooms in our homes to strangers and sit down to a communal meal with them at a family dining table?

Topics: homelessness, rentals, economic crisis, rooming houses, boarding houses, lodgers