While Affordable Housing Tenants Pay Extra for Amenities, Some Market Rate Renters Get Them For Free

While high prices lock some New York City affordable housing tenants out of their luxury building’s amenities—like game rooms, gyms, co-working spaces, and lounges—some of their market-rate neighbors are getting the perks for free.

Amenities for me but not for thee?

While high prices lock some New York City affordable housing tenants out of their luxury building’s amenities—like game rooms, gyms, coworking spaces, and lounges—some of their market-rate neighbors are getting the bonus services for free.

At two new mixed-income buildings, tenants paying market rent told City Limits that their amenity fees are often waived—while their neighbors in affordable housing, who pay part of their rent with a voucher or won a lower-cost rental through the city’s lottery, are asked to pay extra for those perks. 

“If they’re giving everyone else a waiver, that doesn’t make any sense to me,” said Jennifer Meyer, a market-rate tenant at the Bruckner House in the Bronx.

She and other market rate tenants at the Mott Haven building told City Limits they had their $250 a month amenity fees waived by management. This comes shortly after a City Limits investigation found that amenity fees were prohibitively high for affordable housing tenants—a feature some suspected was to keep them from using the building’s gym or basement lounge. 

Management had also barred tenants from staying for more than 15 minutes in the building’s lobby, the one common space that’s accessible without paying. When City Limits returned to the building last week, management had removed all the lobby’s furniture. 

“It’s very clear who it’s targeted towards, because I’m a market rate tenant, and they provided waivers for all the other common areas for me,” said Meyer. “The tenants that are on vouchers don’t have access to those areas, and that was their only area, and it’s kind of like they don’t want them to be seen around the building.”

The management company, JCS Realty, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

The building on Bruckner Boulevard is not without its issues, tenants said. Some expressed concerns about harassment from other residents, and said the lobby rules were put in place to restrict disruptive tenants who’d been using the space. Physical altercations and one stabbing required police response at the building in recent months, residents told City Limits. 

Across the board, tenants said communication from JCS was lacking. “It seems like instead of addressing it with the few people who they had problems with, they just took it away for everybody,” said Meyer.

It’s possible that the cost of amenities is already priced into the high market rental rates. Free amenities could be part of a deal to incentivize market-rate renters to the building, similar to how landlords might offer a month off on a lease. But landlords have complete discretion on who gets offered a waiver or a discount. 

The fact that some market rate tenants don’t pay extra for the amenities rubbed voucher holders, who pay 30 percent of their income on rent, the wrong way. In either case, the landlord still gets the full rent amount from voucher holders because the government picks up the rest of the tab. 

“[They are] charging the city market value for our apartments, and it’s a shoe box,” said Joseph Jones, a CityFHEPS voucher holder who lives at Bruckner House. “We’re paying market and being discriminated against… and yet they get amenities plus.”

The voucher holders in the building are mostly Black. “What started as a microaggression is now a macroaggression,” said Jones.

Not invited to the party

Tenants who live in affordable units in luxury rentals told City Limits that the high price of amenities creates class divides in their buildings—a practice reminiscent of the since-banned “Poor Door” that created separate entrances for affordable housing and market rate tenants. 

Amenity fees can range from $50 to several hundred dollars, to as high as $1,000 a month at one Hudson Yards building, The Set. 

The Related Company, which manages the building, told City Limits as well as tenants who inquired that it does not offer discounted memberships to the “Set Club” which tenants need to access most of the building’s perks, like a pool, restaurant, lounge, and more.

Related did not respond to requests for comment on this story. 

The company told City Limits last month that the rooftop club at The Set was an outlier, and that Related offers discounted amenities for affordable housing tenants at some of their other rental buildings.

But it seems like market rate tenants are the ones getting a discount on amenities.

One Hudson Yards tenant shared emails they exchanged with leasing staff where they inquired about market rate units at the building and were offered the perks of the Set Club—including a rooftop restaurant, event space, and event programming—for free. Another tenant who pays market rate in the building told City Limits that they get full club access without an additional fee. 

Lauren Caporimo, who won the affordable housing lottery to live at The Set, said she asked Related for discounted access but was told the fees are needed to support amenity upkeep.

“Beggars can’t be choosers I guess,” said Caporimo, who added she was grateful she gets to live in an affordable apartment in a nice location.  

Many buildings like The Set get tax breaks in exchange for making a percentage of units affordable to low and middle income households through the city’s housing lottery.

Patricia, who won the affordable housing lottery at The Set, said she can’t afford its many perks, which has made her feel isolated. She moved to the building in part because she wanted to have a sense of community there—which she hoped the shared amenities might facilitate. 

“This is the loneliest 15 months of my life,” said Patricia, who asked City Limits to withhold her full name out of fear of retaliation from the landlord. “I am grateful that I have a unit that is affordable. I just wish that they were more truthful about what I should have expected not being a member of the Set Club.”

She and other tenants say that Related has accidentally invited them to events they can’t actually attend because they’re not part of the amenities club.

Patricia was further surprised that her key fob only lets her access her own floor in the high rise, and that she had to commit to 12 months of the club—a five figure annual expense—as there was no month-to-month option. 

“I wouldn’t have signed the lease if I knew there’d be no chance at me being able to be a neighbor or go to an event that they host,” she said.

New legislation could change the rules

Amenities are ubiquitous in new luxury buildings seeking to entice high-earning renters.

But Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal says that landlords have long used the services as a way to segregate buildings between high and lower paying tenants. She’s pushing a bill in Albany that could shake things up.

In the 2010s, the Upper West Side lawmaker received complaints from rent-stabilized constituents who said that they were barred from using their building’s amenities—even if they were willing to pay a fee.

“It’s a devastating message: ‘You live in this building, yet you’re not good enough to be able to use the gym, or you’re not good enough to go to the pool,'” said Rosenthal. “Like you’re a second class citizen.”

Her bill was first introduced over 10 years ago and never took off, but she’s hoping it could gain some momentum in this year’s budget cycle, especially as new buildings come flush with amenities.

The legislation would ban the practice of only offering amenities to some tenants and ensure that amenities fees offered to affordable housing tenants are “reasonable and not structured in a manner meant to be prohibitive.”

She thinks that clause will give the city’s housing agency more leeway to mandate stronger rules about what’s fair. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development previously told City Limits that its “guidelines” suggest developers offer discounted amenities to affordable housing tenants in lottery buildings.

But that is far from standard practice, City Limits found. Management companies have a great deal of discretion in how much they charge, and who they give a waiver to.

Tenants say it’s led to discrimination and segregation. “I think management is also adding on to that divide,” said Chastity H. another market rate tenant at Bruckner House.

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