ML-Implode News - New York's New High-End Rentals Multiply Above As Homeless Youths Do Below

A slew of high-end, high-profile rental buildings are poised to open across Manhattan and Brooklyn this year, adding more than 8,000 units at a pace not seen in years, and in the process, redefining what rental housing in the city can be... Prices, too, are lofty, with studios in some of the buildings renting for about $5,000 a month.
While any softness in the rental market -- new leasing activity has slowed in recent months, and vacancies are up -- could spell challenges going forward, most developers say they are undeterred.
...
"We have apartments with a lot of character to them," said Jonathan Drescher, a Durst senior vice president. And those apartments seem tailored to younger, unattached renters, as 85 percent are studios, starting at $2,770 a month, or one-bedrooms, starting at $3,880. In contrast, the median price of a studio in Manhattan in December was $2,562 a month, while that of a one-bedroom was $3,375, according to a market report from Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

... Traditionally, in New York, the dividing line between a robust and not-so-great market is a 2 percent vacancy rate. Since June of last year, the rate has been higher, with November's at 2.87 percent, the highest in nine years, Mr. Miller said. In December, the rate was 2.74 percent.

Meanwhile, the young homeless are multiplying and underserved...

They are sitting on the floor at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and charging their phones as if they were college students awaiting a bus home. They are huddled on the sidewalk, hanging out. They sleep on friends' couches and in strangers' beds. They stay with "Uncle A.C.E.," code for the long route of the A train, where they can spend hours unbothered and unnoticed.

Mostly, they just blend in, people in their late teens or early 20s, navigating a treacherous path into adulthood... groups serving young homeless people said recently that the efforts fell far short of the need. The problem, they said, is how "homeless" is defined.

Young people staying temporarily with friends and extended family are "technically homeless, but they are not sleeping under a bridge," said Douglas O'Dell, the executive director of the SCO Family of Services, a nonprofit focused on ending homelessness and helping low-income people and troubled young people.

Last year, the total number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in the city was 75,323, which included 1,706 people between ages 18 and 24. The actual number of young people is significantly higher, according to the service providers, who said the census mostly captured young people who received social services. The census takers were not allowed to enter private businesses, including many of the late-night spots where young people often create an ad hoc shelter by pretending to be customers.

Suggestion: fake your documents and bounce from luxury rental to luxury rental on a 2-months-free deals...

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New York's New High-End Rentals Multiply Above As Homeless Youths Do Below