ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines the single-room occupancy (SRO) world from the perspective of its members as they go through their daily lives. While the slum hotel or SRO tenement offers a unique opportunity to observe underclass life in an isolated setting, in a larger sense the very nature of the phenomenon provides insight into some of our basic social processes. The New York City situation is unique, owing largely to the size of the SRO. In the recent years New York City's welfare hotels attained nationwide notoriety. Since independent entrance has failed, a guide or sponsor of some sort would be needed to gain entrance into the SRO world. The choice of the field-role of "social worker" proved to be an exceptionally good one for the early phase of the research. The author moved very quickly from "simply another tenant" to "The Man" and found his interaction with SRO people markedly different than before.
