This is already happening in Melbourne Australia. Unscrupulous slum landlords have been cramming 13 or 14 overseas students into crammed into a 2 bedroom apartment. The prize for the most innovative went to the guy who rented out a tent on his balcony. It may work for the guy in the article, but think it through to the obvious conclusion: a great way to exploit people.

THIS has to be an April Fool's joke. If not what is the advantage over just a curtain and couch bed with folding table?

I was thinking of doing this exact thing, I added up all the materials and it was about 500 and it probably would have been nicer than his but I'm sure materials cost more in San Fransisco. I wanted to build one because me and my roomates room was small, we studied and slept at different times, and he snored REALLY LOUD. He only had 4 months left after I moved in so I just suffered through it though and the next roomates had the same schedule and didn't snore.

I suppose it's a step up from a cardboard box on the footpath next to public toilets, but not by much. Surely with the space available in the US, this is just ridiculous.

I hope it's a joke and if it's not, please dismantle. We have building codes to protect the men and women who respond to emergencies. Having to deal with this when it's dark and smoky could cost a life.

yes these are called cage hotels. ten's of thousands of impoverished people live in these illegal and cruel conditions in hong kong. i'm so happy we can celebrate this.
just add a few technological gizmoz to the box and celebrate how lovely it is that humans can be more comfortable in cages being treated like more expensive animals than they were in the past
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275206/Hong-Kongs-metal-cage-homes-How-tens-thousands-live-6ft-2ft-rabbit-hutches.html

There needs to be much cheaper housing options for single people like this guy. Sure it's expensive to house large families too but that's a much harder problem to solve.
People who need nothing more than a bed, a computer, and a dresser should have options that aren't thousands of dollars a month for rent. Something like the Japanese cube hotel is probably a little too extreme but a small apartment really doesn't need to be any bigger than a hotel room.

At that size, how about a small RV? Bigger than a sillypod, with a bath and kitchen. Where do you live? Anywhere you are.

I've got a recently renovated pillow fort in my living room for rent if anyone is interested.

This is more a political statement than anything. You cannot live in this thing. No way to prepare a meal, no ablutions, no electricity. $400 for this? I would say just renting a room is much better even though it most likely will be costlier. It's a statement, nothing else.