From the NY Post:
Public-housing residents are renting rooms to strangers — making extra dough over the holidays while taxpayers fund their apartments, The Post has learned.
Several ads for nightly or monthly sublets were posted on Craigslist last week, including a $650 room in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay Houses — which was swooped up in a few days.
“Huge room available immediately in a 3-bedroom apartment for rent,” the ad says. “Females only . . . no drugs, no smoking, no drama.”
The tenant, who listed a cellphone number and a New York City Housing Authority address, declared that two people could also share the room for $350 each.
That’s an extra $7,800 a year in the pocket of someone who is living on the public dime.
Meanwhile, other NYCHA residents are turning their government-funded homes into cheap hotels.
Mike Velasquez, 38, who lives in the Alfred E. Smith Houses, has turned his two-bedroom apartment into a hotel — offering a private room or sofa for $50 to $100 per night.
“I don’t care,” he told The Post when confronted about the legality of his rental. “There’s plenty of people who rent rooms — everyone does it.
“I pay my rent. I can do what I want.”
Velasquez’s 13th-floor apartment overlooks the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges and is blocks from the South Street Seaport. Web sites show that he has been a secret innkeeper since at least 2011.
If he rents out the apartment three days a week, that’s up to $1,200 in extra spending cash a month.
10 comments:
airjordanbnb
I looked on the Airbnb site and in my neighborhood there are NYCHA apartments for rent as well. I contacted the NYCHA inspector general and the hotel rental is still listed on the web site.
I live in Astoria and there is a listing for a rental in Marine Terrace, which is low income housing and Section 8 housing.
Check in your neighborhoods on that Airbnb site and see if there are any others and let the NYCHA know. That's one way to shut them down.
“I pay my rent. I can do what I want.”
- And that's the city for you, folks. Hope he gets hit by a bus.
I'd love to rent one of these and have a real NY experience. Do any of these renters provide security?
Well, who can blame him. Since the city does so little in quality of life issues and enforcing laws, well this is what happens, so I put no blame on the individuals, but on the NYC itself. People will do things till the city makes it difficult and expensive for them to do such things.
The waiting list is huge. evict them, press charges for fraudulent paper work. NYCHA residents are required to provide proof of income to have the subsidized rents. These people are committing fraud. Take the apartment away from them and give it to someone else.
I wonder if the Velaquez guy is an illegal and had one of his ok english speaking friends post this ad for him.
And these savages will the the first to complain when the city wants to build additional residential towers on the land between their buildings.
START THE DEPORTATIONS!!!!!
Well, who can blame him. Since the city does so little in quality of life issues and enforcing laws, well this is what happens, so I put no blame on the individuals, but on the NYC itself. People will do things till the city makes it difficult and expensive for them to do such things.
This comment gets my vote for the stupidest, hackneyed, clichéd, pseudo-intellectual comment of the year posted on Queens Crap.
Do you know what non sequitur means?
so I put no blame on the individuals, but on the [sic] NYC itself.
I blame George W. Bush!
I hate to break it to you, but tenants in NYC have the legal right to a roommate - this applies to public housing as well. The roommate cannot be a short term stay (has to actually live there) and cannot pay more than their share of the rent (i.e, 2br apt for 2k a month roommate share is 1k). It does not seem like this particular posting is doing anything illegal.
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