elfyourmother:

high-femme-jigglypuff:

wavesoftware:

sourcedumal:

wavesoftware:

stylemic:

Finally, saying “I live in a room the size of a closet” is something to brag about.

“affordable housing” lmao yeah right. post them prices and watch how the only ones finding that affordable is white people.

Also aren’t there studies about how these small spaces fuck people up mentally tho????

Really? I never heard about that got any links?

Found one http://observer.com/2013/12/experts-link-mental-health-dangers-to-modern-micro-unit-apartments/

affordable housing units within otherwise market price buildngs in NYC really are affordable, as in people have to be below a certain income level to apply (which is really low), and usually they are determined by lottery

that’s not the problem with them. they are legitimately affordable apartments

the actual problem with them is that developers do not give a tenth of a fuck about affordable units within market price buildings bc they’re trying to maximize profit. so you end up with a twofold issue : 1) these units are almost always a tiny fraction of the total units in the building, the ratios are always overwhelmingly in favor of market price units (the building in this post has a shockingly high number actually) and 2) in reality it ends up being a really fucked up Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs type of class/caste system shit. affordable units a lot of times end up being done on the quick/cheap as compared to the market price units, so a lot of times have lower quality materials/amenities (cheaper appliances and surfaces for example). they cut corners on square footage. in general they do the bare minimum they can get away with

Gawker did an expose a while back about how common it is for these buildings to literally make poor residents use an entirely separate entrance to the building, generally to the side and never with a doorman, so that rich ppl don’t have to look at them. sometimes they’re illegally barred from using building facilities like gyms.

it’s also notoriously difficult to get into an affordable unit in the first place, the application processes are always deliberately obtuse (again, lotteries are usually involved) and opaque, people stay on waiting lists for years, management is cagey about informing applicants about the next step in hopes they will give up, etc.

and enforcement of fair housing laws here WRT affordable housing rules is notoriously shoddy like damn near every luxury building violates at least one of these rules and they get away with it because nobody cares about poor people in this city

tl;dr it’s a really fucked up system but not for the reason you’re assuming, it’s actually way worse, and naturally very little is being done about it