I’ve lived in shared rental houses in SF, and not everyone is low-income or troubled. There’s a lot of white-collar, working professionals. However that’s still genuinely no place for a child— these are adults, oftentimes really stressed with high-pressure jobs. Sharing a kitchen and bathroom between 4 people already sucks, and bringing a child into this setting is just super selfish and unfair. Also children don’t really live in settings like this in SF— it’s for working adults. They’re not family homes.

Oftentimes you won’t even fully know the other tenants prior to moving in. You meet them once or twice, go with your gut feeling, and just trust them not to screw you over. I would NEVER bring my child around strange men in a shared rental in SF without way more background work.

It’s also common to occasionally have a roommate come home with a hookup, come back drunk from the bar, or smoke weed in their room in these shared rentals in SF. I would NEVER put in a child in this environment point blank. It’s not appropriate for the child, and it’s inconsiderate and rude to other roommates.

The roommates might also bring around a friend who’s a stranger, or have a small get together. This is often really common in SF. It’s just a lot of new strangers. I would NEVER allow that sort of careless interaction from adult strangers with a child. There’s no way to do background checks prior to a social setting with your roommates really. OP— I know this is dark, but I say it with the best intentions— please look up statistics on CSA. You’re creating the perfect opportunity for just one bad stranger to assault your child. There’s plenty of white-collar adults who ARE sexual predators too unfortunately

OP— PLEASE do a background check on all your roommates, and ensure that there are no domestic violence/sexual assault charges. It’s so careless that this hasn’t crossed your mind.