The three bedroom home houses 14 pods that are stacked two high and four wide.

For $800 a month you could live in a tiny bunk bed-style pod with 13 other roommates in the Bay Area.

Eight-month-old startup Brownstone Shared Housing has come under the spotlight this week after an Insider profile on the company revealed what it looks like inside the Palo Alto home with 14 tenants each living in a "pod."

While the $800-a-month rent may seem steep for a stacked bunk bed pod, the average rental rate for a studio apartment near Stanford University, where the pod-home sits, is currently around $2,400. 

Co-founder Christina Lennox has lived in a pod herself for the past year. "The wood kind of allows for relaxation, rather than like going inside of this futuristic-looking plastic object," Lennox told Insider. "It has, like, definitely a different feel — I would say that it's more calming and soothing for people."

Residents receive a four-foot tall pod with privacy curtains.

The tiny housing was widely shared and critiqued on Reddit last week, with one heavily upvoted comment in the r/Antiwork subreddit stating: "This used to be a major criticism of the abuses in the housing crisis in China. Now it’s being lauded as good here in the US?"

"We plan to open more houses in the Bay Area in the near future," CEO James Stallworth told SFGATE over email. "There’s a lot of need for housing in the Bay Area, and we’ve had a lot of interested residents and landlords reach out to us."

At time of publication, one of the 14 pods was vacant in the Palo Alto home, which would normally house a single family in a three-bedroom space. 

The home offers two bathrooms, a communal space, and kitchen for the residents to share.

According to at 2021 report on the housing crisis in the Bay Area, the region would need 160,000 new homes to house its poorest residents. There are currently only 35 affordable units available for every 100 extremely low-income households, the report found. 

The pods offered by Brownstone are stacked two high, and come with a built-in fan, light and electrical outlet. Blackout curtains are provided for privacy. Stallworth told CBS News the company aims to "preserve humanity and comfort and privacy" for its occupants. 

He said that the current occupants at the Palo Alto home are interns and temporary workers in their 20s and 30s, adding that at the start of the venture there were some personality clashes. 

"Our flexible month-to-month leases give you the freedom you deserve," the blurb on their site reads, "zero security deposit and utilities included give your wallet a little breathing room" — unlike your new living space. 

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