"Welcome to the St. Cecelia, a landmark hotel on the coast of Georgia, where traditions run deep and scandals run even deeper. . . . Everyone refers to the St. Cecelia as "the Saint." If you grew up coming here, you were "a Saint." If you came from the wrong side of the river, you were "an Ain't." Traci Eddings was one of those outsiders whose family wasn't rich enough or connected enough to vacation here. But she could work here. One fateful summer...

As of 2023, there is no American city or county in which a renter working full time and earning minimum wage can afford a market-rate one-bedroom apartment. In recent decades, as public housing has been systematically defunded and dismantled, single-room occupancy hotels have played a private, stop-gap role in providing shelter for those on society's margins. In San Francisco, one of the wealthiest cities in the world, 20,000 residents, including...