Chanita Granados, 27, secretary, Rego Park, Queens
Rent: $1,500 for one-bedroom apartment
Yea. Because everybody needs a place to live. I grew up in Manhattan but I can’t afford to live in Manhattan anymore. I actually live in Queens. The space that I have is a lot bigger. If the rent was lower, I would give up the space for the convenience of Manhattan.
Valer Mircea. (Petr Svab/Epoch Times)
Valer Mircea, 80, printer, 43rd Street, Manhattan
Rent: $235 for one-bedroom apartment, Section 8
Affordable housing [is] in the Bronx, in Brooklyn—not here [on Lower Manhattan]. I lived under Hitler, Stalin, Ceausescu, and in Italy. Here in this country is the poorest place in the world I lived ever. Everything’s for the rich, nothing for the poor. [The rent] is $800, but I pay $235 [in] Section 8. That was my luck.
Update: The article was updated with the information that Christine Shevlin has been, at the time of publication, sharing the cost of rent with two other flatmates.
