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You just have to be someone who knows how to live within their means, and not chase the “coolest” neighborhoods. Plenty of available real estate in NYC for middle class families who aren’t obsessed with saying things like “that’s not cool enough for us”, “not enough bars/museums/gmo-free artsy coffee bars within walking distance”, etc.
I don’t have a financial care in the world and my combined income is well under $200k, AND I pay more in child support than some of you make annually.
This is true. There's the outer boroughs, there's upper Manhattan, and there's even Lower East Side/Alphabet City.
Or if you're inclined to apply for affordable housing like Mitchell Lama or other programs, there's that.
When I had gotten accepted into my masters program, I was looking at rooms. The most expensive room I came across was a 2,000 DOLLAR a MONTH room in Hells Kitchen. I turned that down. I got a 650 dollar room near campus up in Harlem. I had no intention of doing extreme financial damage to myself just to live next to the coolest bars/artsy coffee bars, etc.
Of course I'm critical of the status quo, but that doesn't excuse people for making some truly dumb decisions. Anyone who pays 2,000 a month for a room and complains about NYC being unaffordable when they go broke is just a plain fool and a part of the problem.
Section 8 has been effectively shut down for years. Unless you already have a voucher few if any new ones are being offered. Even if they were landlords don't like any of the vouchers and often have to be fined/sued/dragged into court for not accepting. Otherwise most won't touch them with a barge pole.
NYCHA has become the defacto housing of first resort for the homeless and a few other groups such as domestic violence. There are huge long lists with very few apartments opening up.
The city has separate voucher programs, including HASA, the Aids welfare voucher. There are some other city voucher programs that get people out of hotels/shelters and put them in apartments.
With that said, landlords tend to reject these vouchers in all but the worst neighborhoods (enjoy moving to Brownsville!) unless the prospective tenant gets a lawyer and sues.
one anecdote experience doesn't tell us anything, however, you continuing to bring this one example up makes it clear you have a fetish.
It's obvious about the fetish. There are soup kitchens and food pantries all over New York, a broke person does not have to go into the garbage for food. She could formally apply for food stamps if she has little money left over after paying her rent.
But Bugsy doesn't know the woman's situation. I suspect some sort of mental illness is at play, it is not normal for people to through the garbage just because they are poor or broke.
When I was in between jobs, I simply got unemployment and went to the soup kitchen (after paying my bills on unemployment, money was tight).
It's obvious about the fetish. There are soup kitchens and food pantries all over New York, a broke person does not have to go into the garbage for food. She could formally apply for food stamps if she has little money left over after paying her rent.
But Bugsy doesn't know the woman's situation. I suspect some sort of mental illness is at play, it is not normal for people to through the garbage just because they are poor or broke.
When I was in between jobs, I simply got unemployment and went to the soup kitchen (after paying my bills on unemployment, money was tight).
You can take your "fetish" comment and....., at least *I* deal in reality. You OTOH constantly shoot off your mouth about things which you know NOTHING about.
Did you know the max benefit for SNAP for a single person is only $192/month?
Did you also know, maximum gross monthly income for a single person from all categories is well under $20, per year?
As for "When I was in between jobs, I simply got unemployment and went to the soup kitchen (after paying my bills on unemployment, money was tight"
There you go again, using your pseudo-liberal and (supposedly) upper class background to justify how everyone else *should* be living.
First and foremost as have said repeatedly am not entirely sure you even live in NYC. So your anecdotal accounts often fall flat, because they bear no resemblance to life as what those of us who do live here see and or know.
Next as anyone can tell you who has been on unemployment it does not go far nor last very long (26 weeks, aside from the recent series of extensions). So either people are gaming the system (working on the side and not reporting income), and or have other assets/income they are tapping to make up the difference.
Maximum unemployment benefit in NYS is $420/week. Most get less, much less. Even those who get the full amount have trouble surviving. So if *YOU* have found some magical formula or way of doing so perhaps you ought to patent it and or write a book. Put some of that famous Ivy League education you keep reminding us you have to good use.
Keep telling you and anyone else that actually *LIVES* in NYC that doubts my words. Go outside any supermarket, Starbucks, convenience store or whatever and just wait and watch.
Some of us are skating on such thin ice just making it, but can't scrape enough to get OUT. It's scary, especially for those of us without any family support.
Next as anyone can tell you who has been on unemployment it does not go far nor last very long (26 weeks, aside from the recent series of extensions). So either people are gaming the system (working on the side and not reporting income), and or have other assets/income they are tapping to make up the difference.
Maximum unemployment benefit in NYS is $420/week. Most get less, much less. Even those who get the full amount have trouble surviving. So if *YOU* have found some magical formula or way of doing so perhaps you ought to patent it and or write a book. Put some of that famous Ivy League education you keep reminding us you have to good use.
You can extend unemployment if you enter a training program. I know people who have gotten laid off on Wall Street use their savings, severance pay, and unemployment to switch careers (move into technology). You can hold out for 1-2 years without having to get a full time job.
You can take your "fetish" comment and....., at least *I* deal in reality. You OTOH constantly shoot off your mouth about things which you know NOTHING about.
Did you know the max benefit for SNAP for a single person is only $192/month?
Did you also know, maximum gross monthly income for a single person from all categories is well under $20, per year?
As for "When I was in between jobs, I simply got unemployment and went to the soup kitchen (after paying my bills on unemployment, money was tight"
There you go again, using your pseudo-liberal and (supposedly) upper class background to justify how everyone else *should* be living.
First and foremost as have said repeatedly am not entirely sure you even live in NYC. So your anecdotal accounts often fall flat, because they bear no resemblance to life as what those of us who do live here see and or know.
Next as anyone can tell you who has been on unemployment it does not go far nor last very long (26 weeks, aside from the recent series of extensions). So either people are gaming the system (working on the side and not reporting income), and or have other assets/income they are tapping to make up the difference.
Maximum unemployment benefit in NYS is $420/week. Most get less, much less. Even those who get the full amount have trouble surviving. So if *YOU* have found some magical formula or way of doing so perhaps you ought to patent it and or write a book. Put some of that famous Ivy League education you keep reminding us you have to good use.
Keep telling you and anyone else that actually *LIVES* in NYC that doubts my words. Go outside any supermarket, Starbucks, convenience store or whatever and just wait and watch.
*LOL* His line goes from if you can't afford NYC, there are other places to live, to when he was unemployed or living in Wakefield in the Bronx he was renting a room. You just can't make this stuff up.
You can extend unemployment if you enter a training program. I know people who have gotten laid off on Wall Street use their savings, severance pay, and unemployment to switch careers (move into technology). You can hold out for 1-2 years without having to get a full time job.
Most laid off people don't get severance pay and don't have the ability to save like Wall St workers in the first place. And move into technology - for how many people is that a viable path?
Yeah, maybe some hipster a-holes who had something to prove. You really believe some woman from the upper east side LIKES eating garbage?
Don't forget that a lot of buildings were rental before they went co-op or whatever and some people are hanging on by not having opted in and keeping that grandfathered low rent with controlled increases.
And just what do you think happened to all those people in their 40s and 50s who lost jobs during the recession and came back into the workforce near minimum wage? That wasn't some fairy tale they made up to amuse you - those people are a good proportion of homeless. You don't see them front and center on the news because they don't want to be seen when the cameras come around. They worked all their lives and can't believe how they ended up. They don't want their out of state kids to see them.
I know someone with a wardrobe to show the kind of work he once did and he put it on daily and had a map of Manhattan (where he lived, aka home) and he went up one side and down the other of as many streets as possible every single day. But he was rail thin from poverty, wearing his ill-fitting glad rags and basically begging, so you know no one wanted him as their poster boy in the deli or anywhere else. He ate from the food pantries, knew exactly which ones gave out what and when and he rented a couch to sleep on in a NYCHA apartment illegally.
And the real problem is that you can have as subsidized a rent as you can imagine, you can pay $300 a month, but at some point, when your bank balance dips below $300 because you have nothing coming in, you can't make the rent and that's all there is to it. Oh, and if you're single and able-bodied, good luck with the food stamps, because they were giving the above guy about $80 a month, most of which he sold for money when he used to rent a whole room instead of just a couch.
Yes, I can believe it, because we live in a place where there are some colorful people. I mean, I watched this thing on TV once where a guy PRETENDED to be homeless, day after day, to collect money and whatever else and then drove home to live in his house with his family---his wife and kids. So I can believe anything.
I did not say that person's situation was ANYTHING. My point was no one really knows unless someone SPECIFICALLY tells you the situation they are in---I'm not sure what your point is. We have people who don't have money and/or places to live. Duh? Listen, my mom has never worked and my dad is trying to transition from WC to disability so they're not exactly rolling in the dough. They are planning on getting out of NYC eventually.
It just means living on the system as many NY familiies are doing. Get on line and apply for housing assistance and let them place you to temporary shelter while they put in on a waiting list for affordable housing. If you can't pay or unemployed. Show the necessary papers to support that you can't work and they will give you more entitlements to live out on the system. This is why taxes are so high in NYC, so many services to take care of people while middle class folks are busting their butts working 50+ hours for NYC companies and paying some of the highest combined taxes in the country just like SF.
Make no mistake about it NYC uses jobs to pass the burden of paying for the poor on to the middle class while the rich own get away places in NYC but list themselves as out of state residents paying very little income taxes here. Just ask Derek Jeter, who claimed he's a Florida resident all these years playing for the Yankees.
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