How do i get on that list?????? Moreover, what job do I need to have to get it???????

good for him...

Why is it bizarre and depressing? This guy is lucky but it's nice to know that things like this are still possible. By the way he can't sublet or sell it for a profit. It's just an inexpensive place for him to live in as long as he wants to.

that alone is worth it. with $250 maintenance he can get rich off the savings. i tend to think it's a working person's obligation not to profit off their nyc real estate, but to pass it on. get your jollies, get older, leave town and let someone else move on in.

I wonder if this guy will become a typical commitment phobic New Yorker. Afraid that if he finds someone special he will have to give up his great deal and pay real rent/mortgage.

I'm happy for him. NYC will cease to be a true cultural center if it becomes only available to the very wealthy. There should be more programs like this.

We just bought a place in a former Mitchell-Lama complex. For about $696K more than this.

lucky duck!

I don't get why anyone would find this bizarre and depressing. The founders of this site lived in a super-cheap rent-stabilized apartment for years and caught a lot of heat for it. (Unjustly, I might add.) To me, this is an inspiring story that shows that it is sometimes/maybe/occasionally possible for New York City to be kind to a struggling artist/writer type. One of the biggest tragedies NYC is facing today is the complete gutting of the creative class.

Sure, Julian Schnabel is doing fine, but Edna Finkelstein, scholarship MFA/daughter of a sanitation worker from Des Moines, can no longer even consider moving into this city. I wish there were more stories like this one and fewer tales like that of the Ekonomakis family, evicting everyone in a rent-stabilized building to turn it into a huge mansion for themselves and their spoiled children.

Judes,
The reason for the "heat" was not that they had a low rent or that they were creative types. The issue is that there are a limited number of rent regulated units in the city; they announced their intention to retain theirs as an "office" or "laboratory" after they moved out, which is not a "primary residence" usage; and they announced it a year before they found their new place. That was the issue. Whether they have given up the old one to someone like your Edna Finkelstein has never been stated, but maybe Edna should send them an email.

Ah, see I didn't know that! That's in direct violation of rent regulation laws. If you're going to benefit by the laws you have to follow them.

Sadly, Maxwell & familia couldn't have given their lease to Edna unless they adopted her and she lived there with them for a year or so before they decamped for elsewhere. That would've been cramped. Alas, poor, sweet Edna.

@SFGail,

That is funny you mention that because the times just had another article about how people identify with their apt...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/realestate/10cov.html

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