The project emerges in response to a new zoning policy passed in 2024 by The City of New York known as the City of Yes. Like its predecessors, it is the primary enabler of a developer-led response to the need for housing promoted by the inclusionary housing program. This strategy offers incentives to densify underbuilt or soft sites above the as of right or legal limit, under the condition that this bonus be dedicated to affordable units. Developers, seizing the opportunity to increase value extraction, have formalized loopholes that prevent permanent affordability and lead to displacement. An ethics of dealing with soft sites is outlined by first addressing the provision of affordable housing to the city. The focus then turns to the district with the highest proportion of city-owned land, the Lower East Side, where the conversion of city-owned buildings is studied on the site of a vacant market structure. Redirecting housing as an asset to its use value opens the possibility of housing more residents within a compact, stepped scheme that relies on shared forms of living. The proposal takes advantage of the lifting of restrictions on the minimum size of dwellings and envisions a field of rooms that can be configured into scenarios of transitional households — evolving from the single-room occupancy model of the SRO. The aim is to shift the attention from buildings as of right, which are closely protected and guaranteed by zoning policy, to the provision of rooms as of right.