Directed by Kevin Duncan Wong, Todd Sills and Kar Yin Tham, from a single mother trying to find her missing daughter to an elderly woman who is going blind and facing eviction, the low-income residents of San Francisco’s single room occupancy housing tell their stories.
Unless you are intensely well versed in the history of initiatives to help low-income families find themselves a permanent home, it’s likely you won’t be able to think of a successful example, or even one at all. In today’s world it is exceptionally difficult for people to buy a home, or to afford to rent a house big enough for their entire family. Wherein, for San Francisco, comes single room occupancy housing (SROs), an attempt at a temporary solution to house families while they look for a more permanent, and suitable, home. Home is a Hotel explores how that becomes a cycle of more funds going out to cover that SRO than can be saved to put towards better housing, creating no solution.
It’s also delving into the quality of low-income housing, and how that reflects local councils and government’s treatment of those families as second-class citizens. These buildings are not held to a reasonably liveable standard which is purely going to put unnecessary stress on the residents, most of whom are already struggling. It comes down to a simple idea of care and compassion being lost in bureaucracy and budgets. All of that may sound sufficiently harrowing but interestingly and impressively, Duncan Wong, Todd Sills and Kar Yin Tham hold onto a feel of positivity.
While there are a few harder hitting moments, and the subjects are battling with sincere, difficult struggles, the film follows how they keep going, how they fight back day to day. As well as the things that they find to keep their spirits up, whether that be art, family, friends or work. Capturing that daily existence gives Home is a Hotel a very natural feel, it’s never intrusive or adding forced structure to the situations. It acts as a way for these people to talk about their lives, to show the need for improvement and how to help people in their situation.
Home is a Hotel shows the dire need to stop treating low-income families and individuals as second class citizens, trying to usher them out of sight rather than to truly help. The subjects are endearing, strong and resilient, there are some genuinely moving moments and some that are painful to watch but all throughout it has a sense of hope. It would be easy to become overtly negative with this topic by focusing on the shortfalls of those in charge but instead the documentary focuses on the people they impact, and how they refuse to give up.
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