Some became illegal flophouses for the homeless, gambling halls, speakeasies, and opium dens. The neighborhood had become known as a slum with cheap hotels and flophouses. At that time, the area was known for its hobo jungles and flophouses. Then Skuperfild decides to recruit new workers among the inhabitants of flophouses in San Komarik. They wander, with hunger and disasters in flophouses without any work. He lived in "model lodging houses", government-run houses for homeless men, slightly better than "flophouses". Since the middle 20th century, reforms there have gradually made flophouses scarcer. Some flophouses qualify as boarding houses, but only if they offer meals.