In this report, an ethnographic study of the aged population of 12 hotels in downtown San Diego is described. The life styles and support groups of residents of "single room occupancy" (SRO) hotels are compared to skid-row hotels and middle class retirement hotels in the immediate neighborhood. Methodology in the study consisted of collecting autobiographies, diaries and responses to three survey questionnaires. Findings indicate that: (1) residents of SROs are 90% male, median age 62, and have lived in the area an average of seven and one-half years; (2) the hotel and its staff provide the core of the social organization; (3) the middle class group exhibits more elaborate networks, support systems and family involvement; (4) skid-row occupants are more transient than occupants of SROs; and (5) good cheap restaurants in the area provide inexpensive balanced meals. Individual papers included in the report focus on redevelopment in downtown San Diego, the elderly poor in San Diego hotels, SRO residents, health status, support systems, eating habits of older hotel occupants, and the high risk of urban renewal and redevelopment for the marginally subsistent. (Author/WI)