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LoveNDino

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marylander1940 Grand Master

marylander1940

Posted
Posted
Depressing...

 

It's a way for folks to live within their own mean while (I guess) paying off student debt.

 

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and counting...

 

How much stuff do we really need/use?

xrhkwleyurcizy4akiae.jpg

 

Do we need 1 gay man per townhouse/house in the suburbs?

 

Isn't that (among other reasons) driving/keeping prices up?

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2551079.1456965134!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/dv-04harkov-1-web.jpg

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Despardo Mentor

Despardo

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They have whole buildings of these in Seattle where they are called Pod apartments. Makes sense in the University District. I lived in 300 square feet in NYC for 14 years. It was an improvement over the 200 sf studio. In Laguna Beach I lived in a 20 foot long camper trailer on a hill with a terrific ocean view for 7 years. Today I am working (as a temp) for an apartment community in West Seattle that offers a 600 sf "urban" 1 bdrm for $1800 per month. Urban means that the 9x9 bedroom has no window. It is newly renovated and quite nice if small. Rents are scary high throughout the region.

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samhexum Grand Master

samhexum

Posted
Posted

Here's a micro-apartment for you:

 

Kitty-corner to the Chanel boutique at Spring and Wooster streets in Soho sits a vacant lot surrounded by a tall chain-link fence. Locked to the outside of the fence is what appears to be a black wooden dumpster, tagged by a graffiti artist. It’s the kind of thing you see all over the city and think nothing of. But this wooden bin doesn’t hide trash cans — it houses a man.

 

“A lot of people come by with big bags on their shoulders and try to throw them out,” said secret resident Damian “Dean” Cummings, 39. They try to open the fake lid, only to realize it’s fixed (Cummings enters through a door on the side). “It’s really funny. One time I laughed a little too hard, and the guy was like, ‘Hello?!’ ”

 

Since June 2016, Cummings has lived in the box, which is insulated and weatherproof and fitted with shelving, carpeting and solar panels that power LED lights, a phone charger and even a hot plate. It measures 4 feet wide, 4 feet tall and 6-foot-3-inches long. Cummings is 6-foot-2. But he’s not complaining about his cramped living quarters.

 

I Am Supported, that would raise money on social media and sponsor one homeless person at a time, with the goal of getting each one back on his or her feet. The men have filed paperwork to secure nonprofit status for the group.

 

They met Cummings during the deep freeze of February 2016 when they went undercover for four days as homeless men, filming footage for a potential future documentary and hoping to find their first sponsorship recipient.

 

At a Soho Starbucks, they struck up a conversation with Cummings, who told them about a good place to sleep on the Mercer Street loading docks, between Spring and Broome streets, and even shared blankets and food with them.

 

A week later the two tracked down Cummings and told him the truth: They weren’t actually homeless. And they wanted to help.

 

“We came back and said, ‘We’re grateful for what you did for us. We want to pay it forward,’ ” Duffy recalled. “Dean said, ‘What if you built something for me to live in?’”

 

Duffy, who also works as a contractor, thought that was impossible until a stroll in the East Village provided a eureka moment. “I noticed all of the Dumpsters attached to buildings,” he recalled. “Then it dawned on me — what if the home was hidden” in plain sight?

 

Duffy built the box at his contracting-business partner’s New Hyde Park, LI, shop for $1,500, splashing out on pressure-treated wood meant to withstand New York City’s winters.

 

The box was moved to Cummings’ preferred neighborhood of Soho, which he considers the safest streets in the city — first to Mercer and Broome for four months, then to its current location. For the most part, Cummings has gone undetected.

 

Duffy admitted he is shocked by how long the unit has lasted without being discovered.

 

“We thought the unit would last a week at best,” he said. “This was really a test.”

 

Two months ago, the police — alerted by a curious neighbors — called the Sanitation Department, but they ended up just warning Cummings to keep the area clean. Authorities haven’t bothered him since.

 

His home has been vandalized a bit. Recently someone put dog feces in the lock and smashed his solar panels. Graffiti artists have tagged it, and Cummings has painted over the mischief five times.

 

For the most part, though, “The people in the neighborhood are real nice and friendly,” he said. “One guy stuck a $20 bill in my padlock” while he was sleeping.

 

During the day, Cummings uses the restroom at Starbucks; at night, he urinates in a bottle inside the box. He showers at city churches where the needy can wash themselves and their clothes.

 

Having a place to lock up his possessions — including his laptop and clothing — has changed his life.

 

“Carrying your stuff around every day, even when you are looking for work, is ridiculous,” explained Cummings, who said he doesn’t panhandle or use drugs or alcohol. He earns cash by doing pick-up construction work or making occasional deliveries for local restaurants.

 

Because he has a protected space to keep his things, he added, “I’m able to find more work. It’s changed my life immensely.”

 

Previously, it had been more than seven years since he had a home.

 

A native of Trinidad, he moved to Toronto as a teen and then later to Yonkers. He butted heads with his family and moved from relative to relative while holdings jobs as a bike messenger, a bouncer and a door-to-door salesman.

 

But in 2007, Cummings’ transient lifestyle caught up with him when he discovered his legal-immigrant status had lapsed.

 

“I had put my [immigration] status in my family’s hands,” said Cummings, who was told by authorities that they sent a paperwork letter to a relative’s home. He never received it, and said he appealed to a state senator to no avail.

 

Without his papers, he said, he couldn’t work and ended up in the New York City shelter system. But he found the shelters too dangerous, so he moved to the streets of Soho, where he lived for four years before receiving his home.

 

Now, he loves watching downloaded episodes of “Homeland” on his laptop and cooking vegetarian meals on a hot plate in his box home.

 

Although telling the world his secret may mean Cummings loses his home, he’s ready.

 

“We wanted to raise awareness that there is a problem and that we thought outside the box to find a solution. And Dean says he wants to help the next person. That makes us want to help him even more,” said Duffy, who added that he and Sullivan will make sure Cummings has a place to live regardless.

 

And if the city is interested, Duffy is ready to build more units.

 

“There is no running water [in Cummings’ home], so I can see it being a sanitation issue with them. We would love to work with the city on something,” said Duffy.

 

“We found a way to get one person off the street. And we would do this again.”

 

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mmk123 Enthusiast

mmk123

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I moved into my apt in 1990 and have lived here ever since (it was actually Oct of 1990). When I measured my appt, I remember it being around 380 square ft. (I remember someone said that the bathroom should not be included in on the measurements since all apt and houses have bathrooms). To this day, I would not mind having another room the size of my bathroom for just storage but I am very happy in a small space. It always kills my on those Tiny House shows how these people act like they just had some metaphysical experience and are such trendsetters by "downsizing" to a tiny house. I do know the size of my place would probably be a large tiny house but I always think "get real bitches, I have been doing it for years." Also, what do they think they average renter in New York City has been doing for the past 40 plus decades when it comes to living.

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GregM Mentor

+ GregM

Posted
Posted
They have whole buildings of these in Seattle where they are called Pod apartments. Makes sense in the University District. I lived in 300 square feet in NYC for 14 years. It was an improvement over the 200 sf studio. In Laguna Beach I lived in a 20 foot long camper trailer on a hill with a terrific ocean view for 7 years. Today I am working (as a temp) for an apartment community in West Seattle that offers a 600 sf "urban" 1 bdrm for $1800 per month. Urban means that the 9x9 bedroom has no window. It is newly renovated and quite nice if small. Rents are scary high throughout the region.

 

So glad I moved from Seattle in 2010 before rents really went crazy. Y'all can keep those shit hole apartments.

 

Hugs,

Greg

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