Closing downtown single-room-occupancy hotels was a costly mistake

Re “Residential conversion at S.D. office tower planned” (Dec. 19): Not that long ago, downtown San Diego was dotted with single-room-occupancy (SRO) hotels, where people on the financial edges lived, very simply, indoors. All those SROs were eventually shut down, through various means, and many were replaced with shiny new office towers, to the delight of downtown boosters.

Where did the residents go? Hard to say, but homeless people are now omnipresent, to the vexation of downtown boosters. We have spent untold amounts to unsuccessfully solve the problem. And now unused office towers are being repurposed, with loads of government funding, as housing. How much less expensive and more humane would it have been to simply fund basic upgrades to the SROs?

I also note the Dec. 20 U-T article: “101 Ash St. developer awarded federal subsidies for low-income housing project.”

— B. Chris Brewster, Pacific Beach