Southern Housing Company

Summary

The Southern Housing Company (SHC) is a large housing corporation, based in St. Louis, Illinois. The Southern Housing Company has held a near-monopoly on mass-housing construction in North America, and a massive section of the market in Japan, since around 2040.

History

The Southern Housing Company began its existence as Rocket City Shelter, founded by Paul Warden in 2013 to provide homeless shelters in the Tennessee Valley area with cheap overflow housing. In 2020, it rebranded itself to Southern Housing Company and began to sell microhomes, beginning with the LifePod I and expanding thereupon.

SHC began to see a meteoric rise in revenue around the mid-2030s, due to climate and political refugees from Asia, the Middle East, and coastal America, most of which needed new homes, and very few of which had the money to pay for one. This growth continued into the 2040s, and then another surge in the 2060s due to the fracturing of the United States of America, and the outbreak of the Second Anglo-American War. The company has rode on its customer base of impoverished citizens, or those who grew up with LifePods, and find full housing accommodations uncomfortable.

LifePod

The Lifepod is SHC's line of capsule and micro homes. They have been sold since 2020, in four series listed here.

• LifePod is the flagship series developed by SHC, designed for mid-range consumers. Lifepod I and II were simply a full-size bed, shelves, and cabinets, with a door on the lower right. Later models added a monitor(LifePod III), and then microfridge(LifePod V). The latest model in the LifePod series was the LifePod VII, in 2081

• LifePod Nano is the best selling series of LifePod to date, selling more than 300,000,000 units over its lifespan. The LifePod Nano was a budget capsule home, fitted with a twin mattress, small shelves to the side, a horizontal wardrobe on the ceiling, and a door at the foot of the bed. The LifePod Nano series began in 2028, and last produced the 8th generation, in 2084
  • LifePod Nano HEX is a sub-series of the LifePod Nano, made for better use in mass-housing settings. These LifePods were generally cheaper, but lacked storage room. LifePod Nano HEX is capable of being stacked side-by-side and top-to-bottom without margin between them. LifePod Nano generations 3-8 have received HEX counterparts.

• LifePod Royale is laid out more like a traditional tiny home than a pod, designed far more for landlords looking to rent out than consumers looking to live in. It was fitted with a bed, full-size door, cabinets, a microwave and minifridge, and a small bathroom, containing a shower. The LifePod Royale series began in 2026, and the latest model was the 3rd generation, in 2085.

• LifePod ROAM was a series of self-driving mini-RVs, around the size of a hatchback. The original LifePod ROAM was a gas-electric hybrid, but later models were electric-only to increase the living space. The vehicles were fitted with a normal front cab, sans the passenger seat to make extra space for utilities. A small door was used to separate the cab and back. In the back, there is a full-size bed, with a divet in the middle of the foot to allow easier access to the cab. On the right, where the passenger seat would be, is a minifridge and a microwave, both connected to the car's battery. The LifePod ROAM III included a solar panel on the roof. The LifePod ROAM saw its release in 2033, and the latest model was the LifePod ROAM Eclipse, in 2077.